


Space Race

by CanuckleheadCowgirl, magnetocerebro



Series: The 714 Marvel Universe [34]
Category: Alpha Flight, Avengers (Comics), New Avengers (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse), Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Angry little x-families kicking really big tail, Bring it., Even if they gotta fight for it, Happy little x-families kicking tail, They will in fact fight for it, X-Men deserve happiness - not extermination
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-10-20 13:22:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 69,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20676074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CanuckleheadCowgirl/pseuds/CanuckleheadCowgirl, https://archiveofourown.org/users/magnetocerebro/pseuds/magnetocerebro
Summary: The second generation of X-Men are growing up - fast. And now as they reach the magic age of 'JUBILEE WAS OLD ENOUGH WHY CAN'T I?', their heroic little minds are turning toward how they can join the team and help finally. It might just surprise you on who it is that gets in first. Of course, all of this comes at a time when drama is unfolding far from their doors but close to their hearts. It's anyone's guess as to how this one will end up.





	1. Drifting

When the new semester started, Sying made good on his promise to take his ship — newly christened _The Wonder_ — out to space for a few months. It wasn't _quite _the experience he had thought it would be, since his dad had talked to Peter Quill, and somehow or another, he was pretty sure there was always a Guardian of the Galaxy keeping half an eye on him.

But on the other hand, Groot was surprisingly fun to hang out with. And having spent as much time with Peter Quill as he had, Groot also was surprisingly knowledgeable on music. So when Groot just "happened" to be around at the dance party Sying had gone to a couple months into his wanderings, he decided to cave and hang out with the Guardians for a while instead of trying to do the whole thing on his own.

Not, he insisted to himself, because he was tired of being on his own, but because it was fun.

It was almost the end of March by that time anyway, and three months of just him and his ship and the sights of space had been exciting, yeah. He couldn't deny that it was _so _neat to get to see Hala — the full beauty of it as it was being rebuilt. And to explore some colonies in the Empire. And to watch a collapsing star… But it somehow wasn't quite the same on his own. And while he had thought he needed some distance from his friends, now, he was missing them horribly.

They emailed him all the time, of course. He didn't miss out on hearing about the latest 'big' news from Earth. Like Ael getting top marks in school or Gerry trying to get some extra coursework in with Tyler so he could study ahead of college. He noticed that Chance didn't post much about what he did with Krissy, though Krissy seemed to be less… sensitive about it. They were still dating, and she didn't seem to mind at all saying as much. But then, she wrote about _everyone's _romances. Elin was getting flowers and handwritten letters from Nolan now even though she was trying to date someone else, and Charlie had another admirer at school. Even Gerry was starting to get into the dating scene, going out with a few different girls on dates — but nothing really serious.

And it surprised Sying how much he missed seeing the everyday stuff with his friends. But he also didn't want to admit defeat when he had an entire semester of space travel planned out. So… he took as many pictures as he could and made sure to send them to the group.

This time, though, he was just writing to Elin — and sending along a file full of music that Groot had shown him.

_Elin,_

_So I won't be home in time for your birthday. (Earth isn't even on a lot of the charts in the area.) But I wanted to send this to you anyway. Gotta make sure my aunt gets some good music _— _and make sure you know I didn't forget!_

_This'll probably get to you right around your birthday, if I calculated the days right. Sorry if it's a little late, though._

_Anyway, the music isn't your ONLY present. I'm bringing home a gorgeous bracelet I found while I was out. The people who made the design don't even exist anymore; the planet is dead. But I got to spend some time with a few archeologists who were excavating the place, some historians from Xandar, that kind of thing. Anyway, the point is, the design is really neat. It's a kind of space flower? But it's supposed to be a warrior's symbol, because apparently that flower was super deadly. Which kind of reminded me of you._

_Anyway, I hope you're not going out of your mind back home dealing with all the drama Krissy's been reporting on. The way she tells it, it's a regular soap opera over there, but I'm sure she's overselling it._

_I can't wait to come home and see you guys again. Don't tell the rest of the group, but space is way more isolating than I thought it would be. It's exciting in fits and spurts, but a lot of it is just travel. No wonder my dad brings music everywhere he goes; you've got to fill the time with something._

_Oh, and you'll be surprised to know that all this music was from Groot. Who is pretty much my favorite Guardian now._

_Missing you lots,_

_~Sying_

Sying read over his email a few times before he nodded to himself, sent it off, and then went back to looking over the charts that he had been examining. He was wary of any place that Rocket suggested was a "good time," but Groot had pointed out a few that he could check out.

Either way, the Guardians were gearing up for some big fight, and apparently, taking Sying into an active warzone "wasn't allowed." So… he had a few days to kill.

And besides, he had actually _really _enjoyed that expedition from before. He wondered if he could find another dead planet and pick through the ruins. There was something about being surrounded by more questions than could possibly be answered that was just… exciting.

And maybe he'd come back with a few more cool things to bring back to his friends.

"I am Groot."

Sying looked up with a smile when he heard the voice at his doorway and waved Groot inside. "Yeah, I know, I know. Time to get moving so you can save the universe."

"I am Groot," the giant tree-like alien said, and Sying smirked. He hadn't quite figured out how to catch on to Groot's vocabulary, but the tones helped with that. This one was warm and came with a big hand resting on Sying's shoulder.

He looked up at the tall Guardian and let out a breath of a laugh. "Maybe I'll come back out and spend some time as a Guardian," he said, which had Groot grinning outright. "After I make the team back home."

"I am Groot," was the response, in a tone that sounded just like Sying's mother saying "duh."

Sying got to his feet and gathered up his charts to head over to where the _Wonder _was docked with the Guardians' ship. "Don't worry. I'm sure you guys'll catch up with me again to resume your babysitting job," he teased before he ducked into his ship.

Only a few moments after Sying's ship separated, the Guardians raced off, and Sying was left behind again — once more on his own.

He let out a sigh and sat down at the controls to his ship, running a hand over the console as the ship hummed comfortingly back to him. "Thanks," he said with a quiet smile before he pulled his charts back up. "Let's find somewhere new."

* * *

_Sying -_

_Yeah, Krissy's totally overselling everything. Nothing notable to report here. She's probably making half of it up. You know how that goes._

_Got this just before the birthday, so you're officially the first to wish me anything at all. The music is great. I've added it to my workout playlist, by the way. And miss you right back._

_Don't get too lost following your heart._

_Love you lots,_

_Elin_

Elin hated writing like this, but she was trying to make sure that she answered every single message that Sying sent, particularly because she _had _suspected that it would be a much lonelier trip than he'd thought it would be.

Of course, she left out little things she knew. Like the fact that it was _Logan _that had more or less threatened Peter Quill into making sure that the Guardians kept an eye out for Sying. Or that Krissy wasn't exactly exaggerating a lot of the romantic crap that was going on. Or that she was quietly forwarding anything that was going on to Jubilee, who she _knew _was pacing in spite of getting her own messages from Sying.

And she didn't mention that she was starting up a long series of tests a few days before her birthday in hopes of getting her team tryouts all _done _before her birthday. But it was about all she had to really keep her mind occupied. Nolan was sweet, but she knew he had no interest in joining the team, and she wanted to make sure that it was something she wanted to do before she started high school and had to make some real choices on where she was going to go. She was convinced that ignoring his advances and friendzoning him was the _right _move.

The phantom pain from the run-in with Essex was long gone, but the memory was not, and she knew if she was going to do anything with the team, she'd have to get away from Westchester and get her mind in order. And if she made the junior team … at least she'd have that as her 'official' anchor to New York. Otherwise, she would have to listen to the teasing of 'homesick' that she knew would go with her semester in LA.

But Sying didn't need to know any of that. Not as far as she was concerned.

Elin had just finished sending off the email when Krissy teleported into her room, unannounced as usual, with a wide grin on. "Oh, _there _you are!" she said, as if she didn't know exactly where Elin would be.

"What did I miss now?" Elin asked as she turned to face her.

"Oh, just Charlie getting up the nerve to agree to a date with Alonzo," Krissy said, grinning as he tail swayed behind her. "So my boyfriend has been utterly and completely kidnapped for the day to help his sister."

"Is _that _why I have to listen to more romance?" Elin shook her head. "Be careful, purple Elf … you have a one-track mind."

"I do _not_," Krissy said, fluffing herself up. "Sometimes I fight pirates!"

"Only if you get kisses at the end, these days," Elin teased. "But that's fine. To each her own."

Krissy flushed a little at that and shrugged. "Well, I'm not apologizing for kissing him when we're _dating_." She leaned over Elin with a troublemaking smile. "You should try it more often. I mean, I know Nolan is on the other side of the country, but…"

"Not interested," Elin said flatly. "Every time someone falls for someone around here, they completely lose their minds."

"That's not true!" Krissy defended.

Elin stopped and gave her a pointed look. "Oh please."

"It's not!" Krissy insisted. "You know it's not. In fact, my grades have gone _up_, especially in self-defense!"

"Alright, don't get your tail in a twist; it doesn't really matter," Elin said with a wave as she got up and started digging through her closet. "Did you need anything else?" Elin asked, waiting to see if Krissy would go before she took the practice uniform out.

"I was actually wondering if I could borrow that blue dress you have?" Krissy admitted.

"Help yourself," Elin said, gesturing to the portion of her closet where the dresses were hanging. "You don't have to ask. You know that."

"Oh, but I do. What if you defy all the odds and decide to go on a _date_, and I'm wearing the dress you wanted?" Krissy teased even as she moved to pull the dress off the hangar.

"I'm not that hung up on any one dress," Elin pointed out.

"Well, I love this one. It's the perfect blue to go with my fur."

"You can keep it, if you like. It looks better on you anyhow."

"What? No. I can buy one like it…"

"Or you can just take it," Elin replied. "Really. I think you've worn it more than me anyhow."

"Only because I get out more," Krissy teased. "We're going to go see _Pirates of Penzance _this weekend."

"Eww, musical. Have fun," Elin said, picking up a little green dress and holding it up as if she was considering it for the day.

"I was thinking about sending some pictures to Sying, but Chance gets weird when I send pictures of us on a date. But I don't want him to get left out, either," Krissy admitted, watching Elin hold up the dress. "I don't like that dress on you, by the way. It makes your eyes look less bright."

"Krissy," Elin said, turning to face her, "I'm right here, and I don't want to see your life through the lens of 'what I did on my date'. Sying definitely doesn't need that, either. He needs your friendship first." She looked at the dress. "And I don't care if my eyes look bright. This is now my favorite dress."

"But you're so pretty!" Krissy insisted. "You really need to let it out more. Not for any boys or anything — you're just _gorgeous_."

"I don't think so," Elin said. "No one's looking, and I don't really care."

"Well. It is a waste of a whole lot of pretty," Krissy decided in a huff.

"Mom says I don't need to dress up," Elin replied. "And if anyone ever gets interested, it shouldn't be in a done-up package. I happen to like this philosophy."

"I'm not asking you to _dress up_. Just flaunt what you've got!" Krissy giggled.

"I don't _have _anything," Elin said, hanging the dress back up before she headed over to the dresser to pull out a pair of jeans and a hoodie instead.

"Oh, you are just so wrong," Krissy said before she teleported over to her friend and gave her a warm hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks for the dress. I'll see you in class."

"Any time," she replied before Krissy teleported out, and Elin waited just a moment before she took the uniform out and changed into it. There were more important things than _dating_, after all.

As soon as Elin had gotten changed, she headed down to the War Room, where she was set to meet up with Scott to _start _with. He had told her that he needed to have a chat with her before any evaluations started up — and he wanted to do it there, since whenever it was that she made the team, she'd be spending a lot of free time there prepping.

He grinned when he saw her come in and waved her over. "Nervous?" he asked, and when she gave him the smallest of nods, he smiled more warmly her way. "You'll do great," he promised.

"So, what are we doing here?" she asked as she sat down, not wanting to get a long chat about how she was ready for the tests — she'd already heard that from both Kitty and Storm when she mentioned that she wanted to do it.

"I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were in for," Scott told her. "Most of the time, we space out the tests, but since you can heal, we don't need to do that if you don't want to." He paused. "But if you need the break, mentally, don't hesitate to tell us. There is _no _rule that says you have to do this in a week flat."

Elin nodded her understanding but didn't say anything. She really wanted to get them over with, so she didn't think she would be taking a break anyway.

"You have to pass each test before you can move on to the next one. Don't worry about it if you don't — you can retake a test as often as you want. You'll start with Storm," Scott told her. "Starting next semester once the European campus is up, anyone who wants to transfer here has to pass one of her tests. This is more or less the advanced version of the entrance exam. After you get past Storm, Kitty will evaluate you on tech and weapons knowledge, and then, you're with me before you get to take a crack at your Dad."

Elin nodded along to everything Scott was saying. Kitty and Storm had both said more or less the same thing already — that the tests were supposed to cover more than just her ability to fight and think on her feet.

"Obviously, you and I will do a run in the Danger Room before you get to your dad's final test," Scott told her, still watching her carefully. "But before we hit the Danger Room, we're going to sit down for a personal evaluation. No fighting, no tech, nothing related to training. This is just about figuring out if you _want _to join the team — _and _if you're ready for it." He smirked slightly. "It's one thing to know how to fight and another thing to know how to be a hero, after all. Anyone can hit hard if you teach them to do it; I just want to make sure we're not training future supervillains." He leaned back and smiled her way. "I'm not worried about that with _you_, obviously, but I do want to make sure you know what you're getting into — and that you don't feel pressured into this just because it's what your friends want, or what your parents do. You can always, _always _say no, at any time in the evals, or even after we offer you a spot. You know that, right?"

"Well, yeah," she said, shrugging one shoulder. "You've always told us that. You guys have made it pretty clear." She took a breath and let it out after a moment. "But I want to do it. I don't think I want any breaks. It would be like anyone else taking a vacation between tests, right? And that … isn't very true to life."

Scott nodded and then got to his feet to open the door for her. "Alright. If you're sure, then Storm's waiting for you." He paused and squeezed her shoulder. "Good luck. You'll do great."

She got to her feet and very nearly gave him a quick hug — but thought better of it — before she tipped her chin down and headed off to work with Storm. She had no idea what the test was going to be, but it had to be something rough if it was to be the basic entrance exam. That _was _what Scott had said.

When Elin met up with Storm, the goddess was smiling her way, but once the doors to the Danger Room closed, it was an entirely different story.

"The exercise is one you should be familiar with," Ororo told her. "You'll need to first avoid detection, and if you can manage that for the allotted time, then the scene will change to a growing mob. From there, it will be a 'rescue the mutant' scenario, with the basic safety protocols in place. Are you ready, or do you want a little time to think about it?"

"No. Let's just do it," Elin said with a nod, shifting her weight from one foot to the other and clenching her hands.

* * *

"What are you doing?"

Krissy had been looking for Chance all morning to challenge him to a video game race-off, but she had not been expecting to find him in the hangar sitting on one of the ships that Noh and Tony had given them when they were kids. When he saw her teleport into the room, he grinned her way and waved her over.

"Hey, Kris," he said, his grin widening when she climbed up to sit on top of the ship with him. His ship seemed to be bigger than she remembered the ships being — they were made for toddlers, after all — and he had to give her a hand up.

"Seriously, though, what are you doing?" she asked once she was well enough positioned on the ship that she wouldn't slide off.

"Talking to it," Chance said, patting the ship as it hummed underneath both of them.

"What?"

"Sying said that these ships are organic and that they'll grow if you give them enough attention," Chance explained, still rubbing his hand over the ship before he grinned and reached over to grab Krissy's hand to hold it against the ship so she could feel the hum underneath her fingers.

Her ears perked up, and she grinned up at him delightedly. "Oh, it's just like Sying's ship!"

"That's because it's awake and active," Chance explained. "I don't know — if Sying was here, he could explain it better. There was a whole lot of jargon about psionic circuits that I really didn't understand. But I do know that the ship's almost big enough for Chloe now." He tapped the ship with his free hand but kept the other one on top of hers. "I think it would be pretty cool to be able to have a ship too. And we already know how to fly it, so… no pilot's license needed."

"I thought you were going to get your license this summer, though."

"Oh, I am," Chance promised. "But I'm just saying — could be fun if we could _all _go to space. Maybe drop in on Sying when he's hanging out with the Guardians."

"Aww, you miss him, don't you?"

"Don't you?" Chance shot back.

Krissy shrugged. "Well, obviously. We've been friends since we were babies. It's weird for him to be so _far_. Even when we email, it takes a couple days to even _get _to him."

Chance nodded, still holding her hand. "Plus," he said slowly, "it could be fun to fight some space pirates."

At that, Krissy lost her thoughtful look entirely and grinned outright at Chance. "Oh, for _sure_," she agreed fervently, her tail swaying behind her.

He grinned even wider and then leaned forward to kiss her, though that quickly turned into a laugh when the ship's humming got a little louder. He laughed as he looked down at the ship they were sitting on. "Okay, so that's a thing."

"Well, you did say there was psychic mumbo jumbo," Krissy pointed out.

"Yeah, but now I feel like there's a third wheel in this conversation."

Krissy giggled before she held onto Chance's hand a little tighter and teleported them to the game room couch, which was where she had been planning to take him in the first place so that they could play some video games. "Better?"

Chance made a show of looking around to make sure that no one else was looking at them. "Oh yeah. Much less like a weird space chaperone," he agreed before he leaned over and kissed her again.

She grinned and returned the kiss for a moment before her tail found the video game controller, and she shoved it into his stomach as soon as the kiss broke. "So. There's a new _Donkey Kong _game out."

"No pirates?"

"No pirates," she admitted. "There are evil penguins on sort of pirate ships?"

"Close enough," he teased before he leaned over and kissed her again — because he could.

She flushed purple when the kiss lasted several seconds, which was longer than they had ever kissed before, and for a second, she just stared at him. He was a good kisser, and she really, _really _liked that she was the one he was kissing.

"So. I'm Player One," she said after she got her breath back, and Chance laughed as they settled down into the couch together to get into the game.


	2. Are You Ready?

_SYING WHY ARE YOU NOT HERE._

_This is an all-hands-on-deck situation, I swear to you. I SWEAR. My best friend is determined to NEVER tell me when stuff happens in her life. I had to find out from STORM that she was starting out the tryouts for the team. FROM STORM._

_WHAT IS THIS WORLD COMING TO._

_Kitty's coming tomorrow morning for another test thing and ugh. WHY are you not here._

_I have to find everything out secondhand, I swear to you. This is JUST like when she got her powers and didn't tell anybody._

_And I can't even properly complain to Chance, because do you know what he said? "Oh good; then there will be more people on the team."_

_THAT IS SO NOT THE POINT._

_Ugh. Hurry up and get back from space, because I miss your face._

_Miss you tons,_

_~Krissy_

Krissy let out a sigh as she closed her laptop. It would take another couple of days before Sying even _saw _her message, let alone replied to it. And she really did miss her friend. He knew when to be properly dramatic about things.

She was about to put away her laptop when she saw a new email come in — from Sying, though obviously not in response to the one she had literally just sent.

_Hey Krissy,_

_Thanks for the music recommendations. I sent them along to Groot, and I think he really liked them. And Rocket keeps telling me to stop encouraging him, so I think that means I could use some more of that German folk music._

_For reasons._

_Anyway, I got to see an amazing nebula while I was traveling. The pictures don't really do it justice, though. I'm still sending them, but I'm just saying, it's really not the same. I wish you guys were out here with me so you could see all this stuff for yourself._

_I think Gerry just started on some Kree tech in his alien tech course this semester. How much good do you think it would do if I appealed to you to please tell your fellow Hawk-kid that I can only help so much with homework when I'm light years away? Would it help at all? I don't think it would help, but I'm just asking._

_Space is still amazing, and I'll try to send more pictures. I'm gonna see an eclipse in orbit next week, so expect those a week from whenever you get this email. I know I haven't sent that many pictures, but a lot of this stuff really has to be experienced, and I don't want to miss it looking through a lens, you know?_

_Maybe you and some of the others could come out during the summer sometime._

_Anyway, hope things are still good on your end._

_~Sying_

Krissy let out a sigh as she read the email. It really sounded like Sying was having a blast without them. But she knew her dad probably wouldn't let her go to space, not when he had been so freaked about the idea of her going to Europe. So for now, she figured she would just go through the pictures he had sent and lament the loss of her favorite alien.

Seriously, who was she supposed to go to when Elin did ridiculous things if Chance wasn't going to be dramatic about it with her?

She shook her head. She couldn't wait until Sying got back.

* * *

Elin thought the test with Kitty was interesting enough. After getting the overly excited happy Big Sister face from her, it was a lot of fast-paced code breaking and translating different alien dialects to something that made sense — all of which was a cakewalk on its own, but of course, this was for the team, so even the tech test was done in the Danger Room. When she finally broke through the firewall for the security on the Shi'ar ship she was breaking into, she was hanging upside down and under heavy fire at the time the last few strokes were entered.

But it was over. And Kitty was bouncing in place and grinning so hard Elin was sure her face was going to split in two.

"So. I guess that's an 'adequate?" Elin said as she got on her feet after the short fall to the ground when the holograms died out. "Or did I fail entirely?" When Kitty kept grinning at her, Elin shrank back a little. "Or … is it you can't tell me anything yet? I was a little worried about the Polish part; I know my spelling was goofy."

"You did _great_," Kitty said, rushing over to pull her into a hug. "I'll have your final score in your file. I think that part you can't see right away. But … you did great. Really." Kitty was bubbly happy, which was kind of rare these days, but she couldn't seem to hold it back. "What do your friends think?" Kitty asked as they headed to the locker room so they could both change out of the uniforms. "They have to be excited for you — first one to take the tests."

Elin shrugged. "I … didn't really tell anyone," she said quietly. "I figured I'd tell them if I got in."

"I get that," Kitty said with a nod. "I do. But you know your best friends are a Summers and a Wagner, right?"

"Yeah, I know," Elin said, her gaze on the ground. "But they've got their own stuff going on."

"Okay, but when both of them get the _look_, you can't say I didn't warn you," Kitty said with a smirk.

"What are you talking about?" Elin said, her nose wrinkled up as she turned Kitty's way.

"You know. The.." Kitty put a hand on her heart and gave Elin her most dramatic expression. "The look. The 'you didn't tell me things' look. Kurt pulls it on me. All. The. Time."

"Oh. I didn't tell him either," Elin said.

"So you'll get it in stereo."

"Probably," Elin replied. "But … I'm kind of used to it? So…" She shrugged. "You can ignore it if you know how."

Kitty laughed and shook her head. "You're just like your parents."

"Did I have a third option?" Elin asked. "Because I'm pretty sure … you know." She gestured to her face. "It was bound to happen."

"I wasn't saying anything negative about them. I was just saying you're just like them," Kitty said, rolling her eyes. "Come on. Let's grab a bite before Scott grills you. He's busy with Rachel and Bobby right now anyway."

"_That_ should put him in a good mood," Elin said in a sarcastic tone.

"Well, that depends entirely on whether he hits Bobby," Kitty said with a sparkle in her gaze.

"What are the odds right now? Seeing as Bobby is usually the one holding the betting slips?"

"Actually pretty even," Kitty laughed. "Considering the intensity of the Papa Scott Face, and considering Willow will be there too."

"Did they just bring her in a 'I'm a big sister' t-shirt? Because that would be perfect," Elin said with a troublemaking grin.

Kitty laughed. "She has it underneath her jacket."

* * *

**"** **Brought you guys some donuts," Rachel said with a grin. "Neat little shop opened up down the street from the school; they donate money to a scholarship for mutants. Thought you'd appreciate it." She gave Willow a smile, and the little girl took the handful of steps over to hand the box to Scott and then nearly tackled Annie in a hug.**

Annie laughed as she made sure to pick Willow up in a spinning hug and then set her down on the table with the box of donuts. She popped open the box and then kissed the little redhead on the cheek. "Oh, did they not have any red ones?" she teased, though she was clearly doing a double-take on seeing the pink and blue frosting and kept shooting Rachel a raised-eyebrow look.

"Why don't you take your jacket off, sweetheart," Bobby prompted.

Willow grinned at Bobby with a purely troublemaking smile that looked just like him before she unzipped her jacket to show off the "Big Sister" tee shirt that she was wearing and held her hands up in a gymnastics salute. "Ta da."

Annie clapped both hands over her mouth, and Scott's jaw dropped for a second before he looked over at Rachel. "Wait. When?" he asked, quickly transitioning into a steadily growing grin as Willow did a little dance right there on the table, totally pleased with herself and how well her showing off had gone.

"End of July," Rachel said.

"That's — that's just a few months away!" Annie pointed out.

Rachel stood up and pulled back her overshirt to show the absolutely unmistakable bump. "Yeah, well. It is."

Scott grinned and got to his feet to pull Rachel into a hug. "Well, if you're that far in, why don't you tell us what you're having?" he asked.

"Oh no," she said, shaking her head. "We're going to let you be surprised. I'll send you something on Father's Day. You'll have to wait that long."

"Oh, you're both cruel," Annie laughed.

"Hey, we gotta do something to make it a little more fun, right?" Bobby said with a shrug. "I mean, it's all been done before. So …"

"Well, it's wonderful news," Annie said warmly. "We'll come up this summer and be there, of course."

"Good; we'll make sure you have the room with a view," Rachel said, grinning.

Annie laughed before she scooted over to wrap Bobby up in a hug too — and then to pick up Willow and kiss her cheek. "Tyler and Tammy's little girl will have a great friend," she teased.

"Tammy's already sure Lacy and the little kid will be best friends," Bobby said with a smirk. "_Convinced_."

"So we gotta eat donuts now," Willow said, already fishing the biggest pink donut out of the box that she could. "Mom said I had to wait until you saw my shirt."

Annie smirked when she saw that the donut in question already had little finger marks from where Willow had stolen some icing. "Well, don't let us stop you," she teased.

* * *

Kitty and Elin showed up as the coffee was brewing, and though Kitty simply phased through the counter to get to the coffee pot, Elin stood there for a moment taking in the group. "So … do you want me to bring out the coffee for you?" she asked, looking more at Rachel than anyone else.

Rachel smiled her way. "I'm fine, thanks," she said, but then projected out to her, _Relax. Dad's in a great mood, and you're going to do just fine._

_You're an optimist. What do you know? _Elin projected right back before she slipped into the kitchen.

_I know Storm and Kitty both think you're ready, and I know my dad does too _— _he's just waiting to see how far you can stretch yourself to see where he can put you on the team. _Rachel tapped the side of her nose. _But hey. What do I know?_

"That was two sugars, right, Rachel?" Elin called out to her from the kitchen.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Thank you, Elin."

When Elin came back with a cup for herself and Rachel, she quietly took a seat as far away from the tight-knit group as she could, though that wasn't exactly possible with Rachel in the room. Once she was seated, the little telepath simply picked her up and moved her — chair and all — to the spot next to Bobby, and of course, he was quick to drape his arm across her shoulders. "You're mean, Rachel," Elin said, though she hadn't spilled a drop of her drink.

"Yes, I'm sure I am," Rachel said, totally unbothered, smirking down at her coffee.

"So," Elin said, glancing up at the adults around her. "Why did I have to be Bobby's arm rest again?"

"Well, if you don't want him using you as an arm rest, we can head down to the War Room," Scott offered.

"I didn't want to interrupt your family donut time," Elin said as Bobby pulled her tighter into a side hug. "But if you've had enough of him too…"

Scott chuckled as he got to his feet. "Come on. Bobby can use your dad instead and see how well it works for him."

Elin set her coffee down and turned to give Bobby the hug he was after before she gave him a kiss on the cheek and slipped away. "Okay, but I don't think either of them will like it much."

"Probably not," Scott agreed with a smirk as he headed down the hall with her until they hit the War Room. "Don't mind Bobby. He's in a good mood."

"I know, Kitty told me what was going on ... or … she confirmed it, anyhow," Elin said.

Scott broke into a smile. "That doesn't surprise me, somehow."

"That Kitty told me or that I figured it out?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, still smiling as he sat down. "So." He took a deep breath. "Kitty and Storm both think you're ready. But before we hit the Danger Room, I need to go over a few questions with you."

Elin nodded and sat up straighter, obviously something she learned from her mother when it was time to pay attention, with her hands crossed over her lap.

He took her through the basic questions first — why she wanted to join the team, what she planned to do once she hit high school, that kind of thing, before he paused. "I've got a few questions off the list," he said. "It's not just something for you, either. This is off your file and what I've seen in class and at the school, and I do this for everyone, alright?"

She nodded. "Of course," she said. "I figured as much."

Scott nodded and pushed the file with the questionnaire aside as he leaned forward, his hands in front of him. "Elin, it hasn't been that long since what happened with Sinister. So I have to ask you if that affected your decision to go out for the team at all."

She thought about it for a moment — and didn't rush into the answer, either. "It would have had to, right? I'd be lying if I said no. But I wanted to before all that."

Scott nodded and let out a breath. "You know if you join the team that there will be missions that go south. We're going to do everything we can to keep each other safe, but there are times that we lose. It happens. Are you ready to face that?"

Elin nodded. "I know. But there is a very big difference between getting hurt by something like that and what happened with him."

"There is," Scott agreed. "And I hope that kind of thing never happens, but I can't guarantee it. _Especially _if you're on the team."

"It _will _happen again," she said. "Considering my family? Even if it's not him, it would be someone else. I'd rather be helping to stop those kinds of creeps instead of ignoring it and hoping it goes away."

Scott watched her for a long moment as he considered her answer before he nodded at last and took a deep breath. "That's fair," he said. "And I'm glad to hear you want to help people." He shook his head. "But I have to ask if you're ready to work with a _team_."

"I like working in a group," she said. "Makes it easier to hide, honestly. And you know that's not easy to do sometimes. But … I can get in places if everyone is looking at someone flashier."

"So you don't want to work in a group. You want the group to do its work away from you while you do your thing," Scott said.

Elin shook her head quickly. "No, I want to work in the group. I don't like doing things alone, but if I need to … I can. I don't _like _to be alone."

"And do you think you can get along with anybody you work with?"

"So far," she said, nodding. "Unless some creep tries to grab my butt or something. Then I'm not making any promises."

Scott smirked. "If someone does that, you're welcome to take them down," he said. He took a deep breath. "I just need to be sure that you can work with the team on _and _off the field. It's not just about how well you work together on missions."

She frowned at him. "I don't have any problems with anyone," she said.

"It's hard to tell," he said without changing his expression, absolutely not giving anything away. "It seems like you've been trying to keep as far away from everyone as possible since Sinister."

"Not exactly," Elin said. "For a while, I needed to just breathe. And hugging hurt. But then it's been more like … I'm giving them space to do what they want without getting in their _way._"

Scott looked like he wanted to say something but then simply shook his head. "And if your friends are on the team with you?"

"Awesome."

"You won't have a problem working with them while also trying to not step on their toes?" he asked, unable to hide the smirk.

"I don't think so," she said. "I'm not the type that _needs _the spotlight. I can handle it, but I don't go inviting it."

Scott nodded. "One more thing," he said, though he was already pulling his notes over. "Part of what we do with this team is — well, we live under the microscope. We have to be aware of what our actions look like from the outside, and not just what our actual motivations are." He looked up at her. "I'll be honest. I'm a little wary of moving you forward if you're not ready for it, so I have to warn you that people will read into your actions from here on out. And you _can't _let it get to you — but you can't fault them for it either. Especially people who don't know all the facts. Can you do that?"

She thought about it for a long while. "I _think _so? I mean, people are going to be stupid until you teach them otherwise, right? And it's hard for my parents because people already think they _know, _you know what I mean?"

He nodded slowly. "I just stress this because you're just as hard to read sometimes as they are. Which means people will make assumptions from what you _don't _say. Just be prepared."

"I can't control what people want to make up," Elin said with a shrug. "And I try to ignore stupid as a rule."

Scott nodded. "Alright. You up for a run in the Danger Room?"

"Okay," she agreed. "As long as you aren't going to quiz me on Polish spelling, I'm ready."

"I don't know Polish spelling well enough to do that." He smirked before he opened the door for her. "Believe it or not, this was the hard part. I know you can do this part; I've seen your combat scores and what you can do in karate." He smirked. "So expect it to be a little more than that."

She nodded and darted off to the locker room again, ready to get it over with — whatever it was.


	3. Happy Birthday, Elin!

When Elin stepped into the Danger Room, she wasn't even surprised when her test kicked off with the MRD. It was a more ramped-up attack than what she'd dealt with in Storm's evaluation, but considering that they were reacting to her as if she was her mother, that wasn't exactly a shock either. She went through the fight smoothly, and when the numbers simply got to be too much, she quickly — and almost effortlessly — slipped out of the tightening knot of soldiers and flat out disappeared into the simulation. Obviously something she learned from K and not her father — when to cut out when it got too hot.

Of course, that just made the segue into the Sentinels seem that much more realistic, since the MRD officers weren't going to find a hidden feral, regardless of how good they were. The Sentinels were obviously a lot trickier to deal with than the MRD, but it was an interesting exercise to watch for Scott, considering Elin couldn't use the same tricks her parents did. No metal on her claws meant she had to make use of whatever she could find in the environment to take out the robots.

But Elin seemed to be as inventive as her mother was about using her surroundings, and after she managed to get the two Sentinels to fire on each other, it was simply time to step it up. In a blink, the cityscape around her had movement from all corners … and it took Elin a moment to realize that the movement was a handful of invading Kree. As soon as she saw the blue hue to their skin, she stepped back into the shadows to observe them, her eyes narrowed until she heard the tone they were speaking in. She slipped deeper into the shadows and seemed to have disappeared off of the monitors until she very suddenly dropped down on the leader of the pack and, again, used as little effort as she could to take him out of the fight.

After that, Elin and the Kree played a quick bout of hide and seek, with the programmed Kree getting more and more frustrated with the little feral popping in and out to remove them one by one. When she was headed in for the last one, someone on the other side of the alien invader took him out of the game with a plume of fire. She jumped back from the flames and started climbing the brick and stone wall in an alley to get a little height and see what the heck was going on _now._

When she peeked out around the corner — and saw the weirdo with the fire shooting a plume down the alley where she just was — she realized the sim had changed to a collection of mutants she'd never seen before. At least, she thought they were mutants. The one with the fire — well. That wasn't normal. Nor was the sheer size of the big guy lumbering around; it seemed to Elin that the very street was trembling as he moved. And both of them were taking direction from _Erik_.

She pulled a face at seeing him with the pair of idiots and wearing a purple helmet, but she knew that Erik had been once classified as 'the worst,' according to Bobby — so, she decided to cautiously approach from behind. After all, her mother had never faced Erik when he was being evil — and anyway, Elin did _not _have a metal skeleton to be overly concerned with.

She watched the group of mutants moving and tried to figure out how the heck she could get those three down when she realized that it could be very simple if she wanted it to be. She headed across the street — away from the trio — and slipped into a parked car. She kept low and hotwired it before she put a brick on the accelerator and put the car into gear — pointed to the big guy. Kind of. Her aim was a little off, but it worked out better than she'd anticipated when the car struck a telephone pole — and dropped its lines into a puddle of water that the big guy was standing in.

She cringed a little at that, but it was enough to stop him — and draw the attention of the other two.

She danced around the fire as the guy shot it at her until she was close enough to pull off a quick little flip that dropped him with a heel to the face. Which just left Erik. Not knowing what else to do — and sure that any second would yield flying metal — she just … rushed him head on.

But then Erik spun and aimed a kick at her head that, for just a second, had Elin giggling madly. She barely dodged the boot but swept his other foot out from under him. When he hit the ground, very suddenly, his whole body shifted into a redheaded-blue skinned woman in a tight white outfit that she should _not _have been wearing in public, and the fight heated up fast, though Elin couldn't be sure if it was because she'd ruined the shapeshifter's sneak or if it was because she was laughing at her.

As before, Elin was quick to make use of the objects around her. She turned a dodge into a swing by grabbing a streetlight's pole and whipping around it to kick the shapeshifter in the middle of the back. But the fight quickly shifted, and Elin was on the defensive when she found out that she'd really just ticked off Mystique. When Elin hit the ground on her back, Mystique pulled out a pistol and raised it to take aim. Scott's hand hovered over the kill switch, but Elin managed to muff Mystique's shot and threw a handful of sand into her face. Which was just what the kid needed to dive in and land a few solid enough hits to end that portion of the test.

Elin was catching her breath from that mess when it shifted again … though this time, the setting wasn't a city. She was in a very peaceful and serene forest that looked somewhat familiar, though she couldn't put her finger on it. She thought it might have been the 'end' of the test for a moment when the junior team came out, calling her name in a friendly manner, but as soon as they were halfway close to her, Tyler roared, of all things.

She froze for just a moment before she darted off into the ferns to take stock of the situation and work around the group. If she had to fight them, it'd have to be one at a time, and she knew she had to do it in the right order. So … first to go had to be the mermaid.

It wasn't an easy endeavor, either. The junior team _knew _that they had to protect Sylvia. Brye in particular was hard to get past, but the first time Elin got close, she sucked in a quick breath, giving away her position. She had no control over the reaction when she saw Jana up close — she still thought of Jana as Sinister. But as the girl turned to face her, Elin darted forward and cracked her in the jaw hard enough to drop her in her tracks on her way right for Sylvia. She didn't drop her focus, even as she knew the others had spotted her, and when someone unseen grabbed a hold of her, she twisted to get them on the ground — fast. She couldn't see where she was hitting the person — or if they were worthwhile hits — but she kept going until the little shimmer in the program told her that one more was out of the way.

She didn't stick around , moving off into the ferns low again, and hoping to catch her breath before she went after Leslie Ann. She knew Leslie Ann was a huge threat, and she was sure she could take on Tyler after Leslie Ann and at least do _some _damage. Though she'd never heard him do a roar quite like that before.

She found a good little hollow to hunker down while she caught her breath again and peeked through the foliage to look for the last two. And then she heard the growl behind her. She crunched down a little smaller as she heard the rush through the ferns, and before Tyler got to her, she rushed forward, though she didn't try to actually hit him. As Tyler lunged, she dove down and slipped right past his feet — but before she could get up, he managed to get a hold of her and throw her across the forest. She hit the tree with an echoing crack, but when Tyler came up to her, she popped her claws for the first time in the sim and sent them through both shoulders, taking him out of the fight at least for a little bit while he healed.

But she just didn't get any further. When she tried to move, she found that her feet were stuck. Vines were wrapping around her legs and snaking up to her arms, wrapping around her and pulling her to the ground. She struggled for a while, but when it was painfully clear that she wasn't moving, she let out a breath and relaxed.

One thing she knew for sure: there was no reason to waste energy if she was already out.

After a moment, the sim faded, and no new sim took its place as Scott called down from the booth. "Alright. Hit the showers."

"Okay," she called back, only picking up her head and shielding her eyes with one hand. "I'll do that. In a minute." She took the time to catch her breath before she popped up on her feet and rolled her shoulders on the way out. She'd done all she could anyhow.

When Scott met her after she was changed, he had a muted smirk on. "You've got a sim with your dad tomorrow after classes are out. Try not to giggle during your dad's test. Just a tip."

Elin managed not to look too surprised, shifting instead into a teasing smirk of her own. "Oh. Okay then. But that's really hard to do."

He shook his head and then pulled his arm around her shoulders to give her a squeeze and tipped his head down. "Now imagine living it when it was a real thing."

"The high kicks? Tea will never be the same."

Scott chuckled. "Try not to think about it too hard," he advised. "You did great, Elin, honestly."

* * *

If Elin had said she wasn't nervous about her dad's test, she'd have been lying through her teeth. Over and over, he'd warned her that he wasn't going to go easy on her. At all. And he told her to be sure that she really wanted to try it before she went through with it. He even tried to get her to back off on the basis that it was her birthday — but she really just wanted to know at that point if she was going to be moving forward on the team.

Which was how she found herself spending almost the entire day locked in the Danger Room, with her dad at the helm pushing her to the breaking point over and over.

No one interrupted them, and she had no idea how long he was going to keep going with it, either. He put her through a dozen different scenarios, several of which he was looking for a different response to what her natural tendency was. There was an attack on the school that she was supposed to run away from — though Elin was sure that he'd pushed for that reaction just because it was her. There was one where she had to leave an injured teammate to help someone of influence, which she positively hated. There was a very odd 'save the MRD officer' from a horrible but well-deserved death, and an unfortunate 'only way out was to take the hit' scenario. And that didn't even touch the ones where she had to take down various senior team members — her parents included. It was _brutal. _And totally unrelenting. Unlike Scott, Logan didn't really give her a chance to _breathe _in between one sim and the next, and if she tried to hide, he'd made sure that she didn't stay hidden for long.

But outside of the Danger Room, word had started to trickle out to the other resident kids on what Elin was up to, aided in large part by Kitty and Ororo, who had elected to stick around for the couple of days left to see how their girl did.

Annie had been hovering in the kitchen waiting for news and baking under the excuse that it was Elin's birthday, which was great cover for pretty much anyone _but _one of the Howlett kids. "You do know she still doesn't like a lot of sugar, right?" K said as she sat down at the counter and watched Annie work up a batch of frosting.

Annie gave her a dry look. "It's her birthday," she said with a sniff. "It won't hurt her to celebrate with us a little bit."

"Uh-huh," K said, resting her chin in her hand as she watched her work. "Then what are you so worried about?" K reached over to swipe a finger of fluffy white frosting and ate it.

"Everyone is anxious for her," Annie said. "This is a big deal."

"She'll do fine," K told her.

"No one's doubting that," Annie said.

"Then what are you nervous about?" K asked.

"I just want her to feel good about it," Annie said, ducking back into her frosting. "We all know she can do it. I just want her to want it."

"She will," K promised. "Everyone feels like they can take on the world after they make it out of one of Logan's tests." She took another swipe of frosting. "You should try it."

Annie laughed. "I think I'm a bit old for that."

"Uh-huh," K said with a laugh. "A likely story from a sweet young thing like yourself." She reached out and gently took a hold of Annie's wrist. "Go easy on the dye. She can taste it."

Annie looked up at K and then smiled lightly. "Thank you." She went back to what she was doing, though with far less dye than usual.

It wasn't much longer before Elin and Logan came into the kitchen, and Elin looked beat — though Logan didn't give up any clue either way as he got himself a cup of coffee and took the seat next to K. "So, what's the big plan?" he asked.

"Well, we thought we'd celebrate Elin's birthday," Annie said with a warm smile Elin's way. "Is there anything else to celebrate in the meantime?"

Elin looked like a deer in headlights for a moment. "I don't … know?"

"She means: did you make it?" Chance asked, grinning widely at her. "C'mon, El. We're all dying to know."

"Um, I don't know," Elin repeated as she glanced over at her father. "Dad didn't say."

"So?" Chance looked toward Logan expectantly.

Logan turned Chance's way and took a drink of coffee. "What's it to you?"

"Elin's sort of my best friend, and I'd really like to be happy for her if she made the team," Chance pointed out.

"Or at least be there for her if she didn't," Krissy said quietly, though she wasn't looking up at Elin.

As the kids stared at Logan, and he refused to budge. K watched him for just a few moments before she smiled sweetly and leaned toward him — only to kiss his cheek as she reached over and pinched the daylights out of his inner thigh. "Tell the girl before I pinch you harder."

He glared at her and then let out a little laugh. "Of course she did. She's been prepping for months."

Chance let out an excited whoop and then leaned over to hug Elin. "Knew it!"

"You didn't," Elin said with a muted smile.

"Well, I knew you'd get it," he said. "You don't quit."

"Yeah, you did good," Krissy said with a little nod and a muted smile of her own.

"So, which one of you is next?" Elin asked. "Since it can't be Sying. Obviously."

"Oh… I'm not there yet," Krissy said, shaking her head. "You look worn out, and you do way better in self-defense and combat than me."

"That's because Dad's been pushing me all day," Elin pointed out.

"I was actually gonna go pretty soon. I just wanted to brush up on my tech before I talked to Kitty," Chance said.

"Oh, is _that _why you're always hanging out on your ship?" Krissy teased him.

"Well… a little bit," he admitted.

Krissy grinned and leaned over to kiss Chance's cheek. "You could do it now. You're just nervous."

"So could you," he shot back.

Krissy smiled that much wider before she giggled and then teleported over to where Elin was to give her a hug and then smack her hard in the arm. "That's for keeping secrets. Especially big ones."

"It wasn't a secret," Elin argued. "And it wasn't anything worth telling until I had news."

Krissy let out a scoffing noise. "Yeah. Like: 'I'm going to try out for the team.' That kind of news."

"That's not news," Elin pointed out. "We've all been saying that forever."

"Yeah, but you're the first one to actually _try out_," Krissy insisted, shaking her head. "And you _didn't tell me_. This is _just like _when we were kids and you got your powers. What. The heck. Is wrong with you."

"This is so not the same," Elin argued. "And you've been preoccupied with other things. Like _dresses _and stuff like that."

"Oh yeah? Not telling your best friend so she can't celebrate with you and get nervous with you and be there for you is different the second time around _how, _exactly?"

"That … _that _was nothing to celebrate at the time," Elin insisted.

"You're still a punk for not telling me," Krissy said, crossing her arms. "I tell you everything, Ellie. I just want to _be there _for you too!"

"You _are_," Elin tried to tell her. "I just … didn't think you would care to hear what I'm having for breakfast and that I've changed toothpaste."

"_This is bigger than that, you goon._"

"It wouldn't have been if I didn't get in," Elin defended.

"Yes it would have!" Krissy insisted. "If you didn't make it, I would have wanted to be there for that too! So I could be supportive. And — and train with you on what you needed to improve. And just — and just _be there _like best friends are _supposed to do_."

"You are," Elin told her.

"Yeah, sure. That's why you trust me," Krissy grumbled.

"I do. I didn't tell anyone but who had to know," Elin said.

"I wouldn't tell if you didn't want me to," Krissy muttered.

"It wasn't about that," Elin replied quietly. "I just wanted to do it on my own. And you were _busy._"

Krissy let out a huff of a breath. "Well. I'm still mad at you," she said. "But I'm happy for you, and also…" She teleported off and then returned with a bouquet of flowers — which had come from Nolan for Elin's birthday. "Read the card. I only peeked a little," she said, this time with a more impish smile.

"Just a little, huh?" Elin said as she took the card out of the big bundle of daffodils and tulips. She shook her head and took out the little card, though she didn't give away what she was thinking as she read the note:

_Happy Birthday to the prettiest girl I know. Hope to see you soon. Miss you! - Nolan_

She put the note back in the envelope and looked up at Krissy. "I didn't tell him either."

"Well, that doesn't make me feel _that _much better, but the flowers are sweet. If I'd known you were going out for the team, I'd have gotten you something for that too, but…"

"I don't _want _anything," Elin pointed out.

Krissy let out a sigh and then wrapped her up in a hug. "I just want to be able to love on my bestie, okay?"

"You know where I am," she said as she leaned on Krissy's shoulder.

"Right back atcha." Krissy grinned down at her friend impishly. "Of course, since I'm gonna _tell _you when I try out, you know this means I'll need a good sparring partner, right? I can't take Chance. I just wanna kiss him when that happens."

"Yeah, that probably wouldn't be too helpful in your tests," Elin told her, rolling her eyes. "One. Track. Mind."

Krissy drew a halo over her head. "I can't help it," she sang sweetly.

"You can; you just don't want to," Elin said. "Totally different."

"Why would anyone want to?" Krissy asked, perfectly wide-eyed and innocent-looking.

"Right. You haven't been taking karate after it got hard … what with the self-restraint."

Krissy shrugged up to her ears. "Honestly, I like fencing better anyway," she said. "I'm working on the dual wield — and the triple wield once I get that down too," she added in an excited undertone.

"Uh-huh," Elin said, shaking her head at her friend.

Krissy laughed. "Go put your flowers in something," she directed before she wrapped Elin up in another hug and teleported away — though Elin hadn't taken more than two steps before this time there was cloud of blue smoke in front of her as Kurt scooped her up into a hug.

"Hello," Elin said as she automatically hugged him back.

"_Glückwünsche!_" Kurt said, spinning her around with a wide smile. "_Das ist wunderbar_!"

"I can go with you now sometimes," Elin said, smiling a little bit wider now with something to _actually _be excited about — and without Krissy trying to make her feel guilty.

"We will have to get into so much trouble," Kurt agreed, beaming at her before he kissed her forehead. "I am so proud of you."

She didn't really know how to respond more than to thank him and hug him again, a little tighter. "I actually liked the tests," she admitted.

"Well then, you will enjoy being on the team," he reasoned. "Naturally."

"Bound to happen, right?" she said with a shrug.

He beamed at her. "Talented young woman like you … oh, easily."

She snuggled into him. "You're biased terribly."

"Naturally. And yet I am still right, as ever," he teased.

"Well, if we're all going to celebrate, there is cake in the dining room," Annie called out. "And I made some banana bread if you don't want anything overly sweet," she added Elin's way.

Elin headed over to Annie and gave her a hug. "You didn't have to do all of that — but thank you."

Annie simply smiled and returned the hug warmly. "Of course I did. We love you, Elin."


	4. Unexpected Rescue

It really had been something spectacular for Sying to see the eclipse from space, though it was somehow less spectacular at the same time than it would have been seeing it from the ground. After all, Sying hadn't been on the surface to see the whole sky go dark. And he imagined that would have been downright amazing. But still, it had been pretty cool, and he had the _Wonder _take a few pictures so that he could focus on experiencing it himself rather than on documenting. He could send those to his friends back on Earth.

There were still several weeks left in the semester before it was over, but Sying was honestly considering cutting the trip short and calling it quits. He'd thought seeing something as rare as an eclipse up close would help him feel less homesick, but the truth of the matter was that he was just… done with this trip.

It wasn't that he hated space or that he hadn't had fun with the Guardians. It was just that it wasn't the same without his friends. At all.

_Hey Mom,_

_Thanks for sending the pictures from the school. I didn't think I'd miss the beach as much as I do, but when I get home, we're definitely going to have to hit the beaches. You're making me jealous over here._

_I'm sending a few more pictures from the _Wonder _from space. I can see why Dad loves exploring; it seems like I could travel forever and never run out of things to see._

_I did get to visit a planet with some spectacular oceans, though. I made sure to take plenty of pictures for Ael, but the planetary officials won't let anyone take even a shell off-planet. Poaching and smuggling laws there are pretty tight. But maybe when Ael is older, we can go back. I think he'd love it._

_Do you guys have plans yet for the summer? I know you hate Australia and everything, but I'm kind of missing the reef and the beaches there from the last time we went. Do you think we could go again?_

_Anyway, I don't have as much to report right now because the Guardians had to go deal with some interplanetary struggle, so I'm on my own again. And you know how that goes when you're traveling: a whole lot of driving and not much else._

_But I'll keep sending you pictures and stuff, I promise._

_Love you!_

_~Sying_

Sying made sure to attach all the pictures from the underwater adventures he'd had before he went back to the email chain between himself and Elin. He hadn't gotten a response to his most recent email, but he wanted to send a follow up.

_Elin…._

_I'm seriously thinking about cutting the trip short, but I'm torn about it. Part of me thinks Dad would be disappointed that I don't love space as much as he does. And I don't want anyone to think I gave up._

_I just don't want to do this by myself. Maybe I'll go back for summer trips with friends and family instead, but this semester abroad is turning into a whole lot of flying through empty space. By myself._

_I mean, don't get me wrong: I like the part where everyone treats me like I'm older, since they're using Kree years, but I think I'd rather be home or in Westchester even if I'm still just a kid there._

_What do you think?_

_~Sying_

He had a few messages from other people that he was going to read — including one from Ael with the subject line of 'I Got Stung By A JellyFish' that Sying was sure would be more gushing about what _kind _of jellyfish it was than actual complaining about the sting itself — but he had barely even hit the 'send' button on the message to Elin before the proximity alert went off on the _Wonder_, and he had to rush to the bridge to see what was going on.

After all, the _Wonder _was still a juvenile ship, like him. He couldn't just trust the ship to react to the situation like the _Marvel _did.

He jumped into the seat and pulled up the viewscreen in time to see Skrull ships speeding toward the _Wonder_, and he yanked hard on the controls to get out of their path, starting to smile despite himself. The one nice thing about space was that a good dogfight was the perfect antidote to the blues.

But he was surprised when the Skrull ships didn't change course to go after him, instead speeding after a much smaller craft that Sying almost hadn't noticed. The markings and the energy signature meant that it was a Ravager craft.

Sying only took a split second to make his decision before he went after the Skrulls.

There were only three Skrull ships, but that still meant that Sying was outnumbered, since he couldn't exactly rely on the Ravager ship to give him any assistance. It was leaking fuel, it was badly damaged, and one of the engines was on fire. So he'd have to do this one on his own.

"Come on; let's show them what we can do," he muttered to the _Wonder_ before he leaned forward and pushed the ship into a dive, spinning on a dime to face the Skrulls before he opened fire on the ship in the middle, scoring a direct hit to their engines right off the bat.

_Those lessons with Dad are finally paying off_, he thought to himself as he spun the _Wonder _around to avoid a blast from the ship to his starboard side.

He didn't think that these Skrulls were well-trained, not from the way they were coming after Sying now that he had their attention. They weren't moving in formation, which had him thinking that his opponents were probably scavengers — or else young and inexperienced. Either way, he was glad that he wasn't fighting more militarily-trained Skrulls as he pulled away from the damaged Ravager craft, drawing the Skrulls farther away so that, hopefully, whoever was inside could get that fire put out and try to salvage what they could.

Of course, almost as soon as he had managed to tag the second Skrull ship, the _Wonder _took a solid hit as well. The whole ship shuddered, and Sying gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the controls. "Shake it off," he muttered to his ship. She'd never been hit like that before, and while the shields were still holding, he didn't want the engines losing faith on him in the middle of a fight.

"Let's pay them back," he muttered to the ship before he pushed the engines, diving underneath the Skrulls and then pulling up short rather than speeding past them. The Skrulls had their sights set on where he would have gone if he'd kept going, which gave him the split-second edge that he needed to get the drop on them.

He opened fire, hitting the already damaged ship in their engine, but the one he had hit first managed to tag him again, this time with a blast hard enough that it nearly knocked out his shields entirely.

Sying was almost blown out of his chair, and he let out a cry of surprise and grabbed hold of the console, his eyes wide. "Wow. Okay. Let's not let them do that again," he told the _Wonder_, who seemed to be in perfect agreement with him.

He spun to face the Skrulls, who seemed to be regrouping, but before he could fire on them again, he was surprised when the Ravager ship fired on the Skrulls, a wide spread that clearly wasn't targeted — he wondered if their weapons systems had been too badly damaged or if whoever was in the ship was badly hurt — but it was enough to hit two of the ships.

One of them was badly crippled now, and another was listing to the side. So, Sying figured now was the best time to run a bluff. He hailed the ships. "If you leave now, we won't finish you off," he declared.

He wasn't surprised when that was answered with a solid shot that he barely dodged, but he felt like he had to at least _try_.

The fire was spreading on the Ravager ship nearby, and Sying wasn't sure if they would be able to pull off another shot at all. But he pulled into position alongside the ship — a show of solidarity and (sort of) force. He squeezed off a shot as he flew, tagging the lead Skrull ship — the one with the least damage. While he had been aiming for their engines, he ended up hitting the bridge pretty solidly when they turned unexpectedly.

He stared at the screen as the Skrull ship listed to the side. He was pretty sure an explosion like that, with all the fire coming out of the bridge… He might have killed someone with that.

_That's what happens in a space dogfight_, he told himself, though the "X-Men don't kill" mantra was also playing in the back of his mind and playing with his nerves. The fact that Skrulls could re-form pounded somewhere in there too as his mouth dried out.

But he didn't get to dwell on it too long, because that shot had shaken the Skrulls as well. They pulled back from the fight in full retreat — which meant that he could focus his attention on the badly damaged Ravager craft.

The craft wasn't answering his hails, and Sying wasn't sure if that was because the equipment was damaged or if whoever was inside simply _couldn't _answer. Either way, he could see that the fire was spreading, and he wanted to get whoever was inside out before it became deadly.

The docking procedure he pulled out wasn't elegant by any stretch of the imagination, but it got the job done, and in no time, he was spilling onto the Ravager craft and heading toward the cockpit.

The ship was seriously damaged, with scorch marks everywhere that looked like it had been boarded, and Sying couldn't help but wonder just how long the Ravager had been running from the Skrulls. The door to the cockpit wouldn't open when he first tried it, so he had to take a step back and put his fingers together, concentrating on making a plasmoid that he could put into the damaged locking mechanism. In a second, the lock burst apart, with little yellow sparks, and from there, it was a matter of yanking it off the rest of the way to get to the pilot.

But to Sying's surprise, there wasn't a Ravager in the pilot's seat. Instead, it was a Shi'ar — unconscious and obviously injured.

Sying stared at the girl and at her badly singed feathers for a long time before he took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and shook his head. _Dad's going to have a fit,_ he thought to himself before he moved around to the front of the cockpit so he could pull the belt off of the Shi'ar girl that was keeping her to her seat. She was probably about his age and bleeding badly — there really wasn't any way he _couldn't _help, right?

He hoisted the Shi'ar girl over his shoulder and made sure to make a quick pass of the rest of the ship, though this girl was the only one in it.

He got back to the Marvel and went to the cockpit first to set a course in the _Wonder's _navigational computer away from the damaged Ravager ship in case it decided it wanted to explode — and in case the Skrulls came back with some friends. From there, he carried the Shi'ar down to his med bay. Most of what was there was meant for Kree use, unfortunately, so he wasn't entirely sure he could use any of the medicine he had. He briefly considered using the emergency direct line to call Westchester and ask Hank what to do — it would connect him without the delay of the usual lines of communication, but it took a lot out of the ship. But… He checked the Shi'ar girl over again and bit his lip. He could stitch up most of this. And then take her to … Nova, he supposed. Seeing as the Guardians were busy.

He was _not _going to try to take her home, because he knew the second his ship entered Shi'ar space, he'd get shot at. But there had to be a middleman group that would be able to help.

In the meantime, he'd do what he could.

He pulled out the supplies he would need to get started, but before he had even made the first stitch, the Shi'ar girl woke up and immediately let out a screech of displeasure when she saw him standing over her.

"Don't touch me, Kree," she spit out, sitting up quickly and pushing him away from her rather than pulling back, though there wasn't much power to her actions, considering how badly she was hurt.

Sying didn't move at all with the push and simply held up the medical supplies so she could see them. "So you _don't _want me to stitch you up, then?"

The Shi'ar girl narrowed her eyes at him. "For what purpose?"

"Well, for one thing, you're bleeding in my ship," he said, holding her gaze without flinching. "And for another thing, it's sort of what I do. My whole family."

"Help Shi'ar? I doubt it," the girl sneered.

"Help anyone who needs it," Sying corrected her. "Regardless of who or what they are."

The girl watched him warily. "That is not the Kree way."

"Yeah, well, I'm half-Terran," Sying said easily.

She didn't drop her gaze in the least as she continued to study him before, finally, she nodded. "If you try anything…"

"I'm literally just going to stitch you up and get you to someone who can take you back to Shi'ar space," Sying swore.

She still looked wary but didn't try to stop him this time as he started to clean up the area around the worst wounds.

"I don't have any Shi'ar medicine, so I'm just using some general numbing agents," he told her.

"I don't need to be babied."

Sying rolled his eyes. "Look," he said. "You can fight me all day, and I'm still going to get my way. This is my ship, my rules, and I'm not letting you die. So if I have to wait for you to pass out again, I'll just stitch you up then. So shut up and let me work."

For a moment, the Shi'ar looked shocked — and then she almost smirked his way. "Fair enough," she agreed.

Sying raised an eyebrow in mild surprise at how easily she surrendered the argument before he simply had to return the smirk and get down to work, glad that he didn't have to fight her anymore. He tried to work as quickly and efficiently as he could, relieved that he at least knew some basics — though he was seriously considering calling Hank. He would know more about treating Shi'ar than Sying did.

But somehow, without having to call home, he got the Shi'ar stitched up all the same and finally put away the materials he was using as she examined his work. "Not bad," she said. "For a Kree."

"The first half of that sentence started out so well," Sying said without looking up as he finished what he was doing.

She let out a huff and crossed her arms, glaring at him as he cleaned up. "What are you doing this far from Hala anyway?"

"Exploring," Sying said. "What are _you _doing in a Ravager ship?"

"Exploring," the Shi'ar said, smirking.

Sying raised an eyebrow at her. "No, really. I told you the truth."

"Maybe Kree and Shi'ar simply have different definitions of exploration," the girl said.

"And ownership," Sying said. "I know those markings. You didn't start out in that ship, did you?"

"I won it," she said, shrugging lightly. "And who are you to interrogate me, anyway?"

He dried off his hands and finally turned back to her. "Sying-Varr," he said, holding out his hand for her to shake, though he let it drop when she didn't. "And you are?"

She narrowed her eyes at him before she finally let out a breath. "Andri'i."

"Well, Andri'i, I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I got shot at, and now I have to listen to you snipping at me, so... "

She rolled her eyes. "I could have handled those Skrulls."

"Oh yeah. It looked like you had things _well _in hand," Sying agreed in his most sarcastic tones.

She glared at him. "I still had weapons capabilities."

"Yeah, I saw the Hail Mary."

"The what?"

"Never mind." He shook his head and then hopped up to sit on the counter in the med bay. "So, I can call someone to take you to Shi'ar space."

"I'll do it myself once we get to an outpost."

"I'm not going to a Shi'ar outpost either. I'm not an idiot," Sying said.

She smirked his way. "No, I don't suppose you are," she said, then shook her head. "Well, if you're not taking me back the direct route, the least you can do is show me where I'll be staying."

"Actually, the least I could do was save your life, which you're welcome for, by the way," Sying said with a bit of heat. "I've got a room you can use, but I'm warning you now: my ship won't let you into _anything _you're not supposed to get into."

"That's what the Ravagers said," Andri'i said with a growing smile.

"No, I really mean she won't let you in." Sying patted the wall with one hand, and the ship hummed. "Psyionic."

Andri'i's eyebrows shot up as she looked around at the ship. "I didn't know the Kree had ships like this."

"Careful now; that almost sounded like you were impressed."

She opened her mouth and turned his way, then closed it again and let out a laugh through her nose. "Clever."

"Yeah, I'm just like that," he said before he jumped off the counter. "Come on. I'll show you where you can get a bite to eat, and then I'll show you where you're staying until we can find someone to take you home."


	5. You Were Right, Sying: Your Dad Hates This

_Sying -_

_Don't stay out just because you're worried about what anyone thinks. If you want to come back, come back. I'm sure your dad will be happy if you showed up early. He's been watching the skies for your ship, according to Jubilee. He misses you more than he's concerned about travel plans, I'm sure._

_Things are getting I think … a little better here? I talked to Scott about taking the test for the team? And … I did the whole thing in a few days. I can't tell you about the tests themselves, though. They said that they're different for everyone, but I still can't tell you what I had to do._

_But I got in. I finished Dad's test on my birthday, and it was awful, but when it was done, I got the best, longest hug from him, and I slept so hard that night._

_Krissy was so mad that I didn't tell her about taking the test. But … well. I think we're kind of drifting a little anyhow. I just can't get as excited as she does about some of that stuff, and I want to be alone way more than I want to get over dramatic about every little thing._

_I'm really looking forward to school being over so we can get out of town _— _unless, of course, Scott says I need to stay and help with the team. I don't know._

_Storm said I should spend some time in her school. She wants to work with me on some leadership exercises to see if I can do them. I think she misses seeing all of us, so … maybe that would be a good thing._

_Wish you were here. I don't really have anyone to talk to about this stuff without making it into a big hairy deal and a group discussion. Love you bunches._

_~Elin_

She let her hand hover over the button for a moment before she hit 'send,' and then she leaned back in her seat, wondering if she'd done the right thing telling him all that she had. _No, _she decided. _He needs to know he's not the only one on unsteady ground._

But she didn't have much time to think about it now. She only had small windows of time to herself in her first few months on the team. She had to show that she could work with the people that were already in it — and she had to find her place in the group — which really meant that, for the time being, she didn't have a lot of time for her other friends _or _herself. She looked at the clock, pushed away from the desk in her room, and headed for the locker room.

It was a little surreal; she now had her own locker with the rest of the team members in _their _separate locker room where her uniform was kept, along with several changes of clothes. She just … didn't think that it would have happened so quickly for her. And she really didn't think she'd have been the first. For how excited Chance had been for … _ever _about joining up, she was sure that he'd have been first.

But that didn't make her first custom sized X-Men uniform any less amazing. She couldn't help but smirk to herself when she put it on and realized, maybe for the first time, that she'd really _earned _it. And she was bound and determined to keep earning it.

* * *

Sying's plan to drop off his passenger the first chance he got had caught… well, a small snag.

A snag named _Wonder_.

At the moment, he was down in the engine room fighting with his ship. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her, but her engines simply weren't _motivated_. At first, Sying had thought it was because she was hurt, but she had healed up fine and even seemed to handle like a dream when a rogue Starjammer ship had gotten too close for comfort.

So, clearly, the problem was the fact that Andri'i was on board.

"Listen, you stupid ship," Sying said from where he was halfway wedged underneath the bulk of the engine. "If you don't like her, then you have to _work with me_ to get to the nearest planet so we can _drop her off_. Stranding us isn't doing you any favors."

But no matter how Sying argued and cajoled and begged, the _Wonder _was, more or less, pouting.

Sying let out a breath of annoyance and brushed his hair out of his face before he climbed out of the engine space and made his way over to one of the panels on the wall. There really wasn't anything he could _do _about his ship throwing a fit, so he figured he should let the Guardians know where he was in case he missed the rendezvous… and he should probably tell his parents.

Which… he had been avoiding.

He had figured this would just be a quick pick up and drop off, but with the _Wonder _misbehaving, there was now a Shi'ar on his ship, and he couldn't get rid of her until his ship stopped being stupid. But his ship hated carrying a Shi'ar so much that she wouldn't let him get rid of her. It was an exceedingly idiotic cycle.

"Dad's gonna love this," he muttered to himself before he pulled up his emails. He had a few from home, family updates… Mom sent one every day just to make sure Sying didn't miss anything… There was one from Elin, too, which he planned to read after he wrote to his parents. That would be a good pick-me-up.

Of course, he ended up spending a good deal of time _not _writing to his parents now that he actually had the email pulled up, instead responding to Krissy's dramatics… then to Chance asking advice on some alien tech that he was trying to cram in so he felt prepared for Kitty's tech test, since "Elin won't tell me anything."

Charlie's email had been a relaxing read, too. It was all about a new series of audio plays that she had discovered that she loved to listen to and relax to, as well as a few pictures from school that weren't of anything in particular, just students out on the lawn studying or having a snowball fight. And oh, there was a casual mention at the end that she was going to be an aunt again.

_Really, Charlie. You're just going to throw that in there and think I didn't notice._

Sying shook his head, but he was in a much better mood now that he'd read through everything his friends had to say.

So…

_Hey, Mom and Dad,_

_I haven't written for a couple days, so I hope you don't freak out at the gap. It was kind of unavoidable. Ran into some trouble with some Skrulls. Don't worry; they came out WAY worse from the dogfight. But I sorta picked up a passenger._

_Her name is Andri'i, and she was on a Ravager ship that the Skrulls were attacking. So, I pulled her out of trouble, but I don't think my ship likes her very much._

He let out a breath. He was trying not to worry either of them, and he knew his dad and Ael both would be mad at him, but…

_Which… is probably because she's a Shi'ar._

_Don't freak. I didn't know she was one when I saved her, but I probably still would have, because that's what we do, right? Anyway, I'm going to take her to the nearest inhabited planet and let her call someone for a ride home or something, but the _Wonder _is being a pain about carrying her. Which is really just prolonging the whole thing._

_Anyway, I'll let you know how that goes, but I didn't want you to worry._

_Seriously, I'm fine. It's just my ship is an idiot. I'll talk to you again soon._

_Love you!_

_~Sying_

He read the message a couple times over and almost deleted it, sure that his parents were just going to freak out and want to come get him. But he finally sent it off and then pulled up Elin's email, reading through it to almost instantly brighten his mood when he read that Elin had made the team.

_Elin,_

_Congratulations! That's amazing, and I'm so excited for you. Now I definitely want to come home early so I can be there and be on the team with you. I think I'm going to go out for it as soon as I get home, just so you're not on your own. :)_

_Don't worry about Krissy. I got an overly dramatic email from her too. Honestly, I think she's upset because she can see that our group is sort of drifting, which is where a lot of the freak out is coming from. At least, that's what I'm seeing from her messages. Probably doesn't help that I'm in space; sorry about that._

_Anyway, I'll be coming home soon (thinking about surprising my parents), but there's just one more thing that I have to do._

_I sort of accidentally picked up a Shi'ar. It's a long story. Basically, I thought I was saving a Ravager, and it turned out it was a Shi'ar in a Ravager ship being attacked by Skrulls… anyway, the point is, I'm not just going to leave her stranded in space. So, I'm taking her somewhere she can call for someone to come get her, and then I'll head home._

_It's just that my ship hates this girl, so it's kind of slow going while the _Wonder _is pitching a fit. I TRIED to reason with her, but that doesn't seem to be working out so well. If she can just speed up, we can drop the Shi'ar off and move on, but noooo. No logic works._

_I'm this close to kicking the engine, I swear._

_Anyway, I can't wait to come home and see you. I miss you so much. I wish I could be there for you to talk to when things get stupid over there, and I wish you could be here to talk some sense into my ship, but hey, cardinal rule of time travel and all that._

_See you soon,_

_~Sying_

He leaned back and ran both hands through his hair before he pushed aside the panel and turned back to the engine. "Just work with me, okay?" he told the _Wonder_. "Just until we get to the nearest planet?"

"Are all Kree ships this temperamental?"

Sying looked up to see Andri'i standing in the doorway and kicked the engine. "Oh, okay, so you're mad at her, but you'll just let her wander in here. You're an idiot," he told the engine, which whined back at him.

"I don't think that's going to help," Andri'i said mildly.

Sying scrubbed a hand over his face before he looked up at Andri'i. "She's organic, and she's young."

"That seems like an inefficient design, then," Andri'i said, frowning at the engine, which whined again.

Sying rolled his eyes at the engine. "It's really not. If you have the patience, by the time you've grown up together, this kind of ship can practically fly itself."

"And how long does it take to get there?"

"Longer than you'll be around." Sying gestured toward the door. "Come on — you're ticking off my engine."

"That's her problem then, isn't it?"

"Like it or not, it's _our _problem if she's not going to move."

"Can't you override it?"

"You mean force her into it? No. That would destroy any trust we have, and she'd pretty much never listen to me again."

"But it is possible?" Andri'i asked, leaning forward slightly.

He frowned at her. "Not for you it isn't."

She leaned back again, shaking her head lightly as she considered him. "So we're just going to drift here until your ship decides to stop… well. I suppose it can't help being so _Kree_."

Sying glared at her and, in a second, had a finger in her face, the very tip of his fingernails sparking without him even thinking about it. "You keep that up, and I'll take you back to where I found you," he warned, which seemed to get a happy sort of hum out of the ship.

"Really? After all the work patching me up and pretending to _care_?" she shot back, drawing her shoulders back and standing a little taller so that she was a few inches over Sying.

"My ship seems to agree," he pointed out, throwing an arm out to indicate the humming walls.

"Maybe you're just not motivating it properly," Andri'i shot back with a fair bit of heat before she launched forward, clearly meaning to tear into Sying.

But he'd seen it coming and stepped away from her attack faster than she could blink. He was _not _in the mood for this. When she passed him on her swing, he grabbed her arm and pulled it behind her into a solid hold, pushing her against the wall of the _Wonder _so that she was pinned there. She struggled against his hold, but he kicked her feet out too so that she was flat on her face, and then he held her down with a glare. "I want to get moving just as much as you do, but trust me when I tell you that if you do that again, you're going to end up launched out of a torpedo tube. And I won't even have to lift a finger."

Andri'i shifted under his hold a bit longer before she finally relented, and he stepped back to let her up. "Where did you learn that move?" she asked, in a much less aggressive tone than before.

"I told you: I'm half Terran," Sying said. "And I've trained at home on Earth with teachers I _know _no Shi'ar has ever beaten."

She tipped her head to the side as she considered him before a smile crept over her face. "Show me."

"No." He shook his head and put his hands down.

"You just want to know you can keep me here—"

"Yeah, no," he said, shaking his head even harder. "If I was trying to keep you here, the _Wonder _wouldn't let you out of your room. I'm trying to send you back wherever you're supposed to be, so if you could stop being _stupid _for five minutes, that would be greatly appreciated." He spun on his heel and headed down the corridor, but Andri'i followed him with a curious look on her face.

"You had sparks coming from your hands before," she said as she followed him to the galley.

"Half-Terran. I already told you that."

"Terrans do _not _generate sparks from their hands," she said.

"Some of us do."

"No." She shook her head, her arms crossed. "No, there is something else going on here."

"Or maybe you just don't know enough about Terrans," he shot back. "Or you'd know that shooting sparks is actually pretty tame compared to some of what the rest of my family can do."

"And what is that?"

"You'd better hope you don't find out," he said. "But if we stay stranded like this, you're going to. I wouldn't be surprised if my dad came out to get us himself."

"And he's the Terran?"

"What do you care?" he asked, glaring at her as she followed him to the mess.

"I'm just trying to understand—"

"I know what an interrogation looks like, Andri'i. I'm not an idiot."

She sat down beside him with a smirk. "Is that what I'm doing?"

"Yeah, it's pretty obvious," he said without dropping her gaze. "And it's not going to work."

Her smirk widened for a second before she very slowly leaned in. He was sure she was trying to intimidate him, so he didn't move, which meant he absolutely wasn't prepared for it when she _kissed _him.

He pushed her back at her shoulders and stared at her, totally thrown off his guard. "What…?"

She grinned at him. "Haven't you ever kissed anyone before?" she asked, still ridiculously close to him.

"Yeah, actually, and—"

"Oh good. Then you know what to do," Andri'i said before she grabbed his shirt and kissed him again, a lot more aggressively this time.

* * *

Jubilee very nearly closed the computer and deleted the email when she saw what Sying had to say. Mostly because she just _knew _what Noh was going to do. All things considered. But … she also knew Noh was incredibly on edge waiting to hear from their little boy. So instead, she very quietly went back to the inbox and left it for Noh to open and read for himself.

She didn't have long to wait before Noh came in, with both of the twins on his shoulders as they giggled and laughed about the fun time they'd had on the _Marvel _practicing their flying.

"Always showing off," she sang to Noh with a little smile, though it was absolutely less enthusiastic than usual. "Handsome."

He grinned at her and set the girls down. "And my lovely Jubilee," he said, then kissed her warmly, waiting until the girls had run off to their room before he asked, "Have you heard from Sying yet?"

"I did," she said, slowly nodding. "And before you read it, you need to promise to be calm."

"What happened?" he asked, frowning at her tone.

"Just … promise me," she said with an imploring look.

He let out a breath and then nodded, leaning over to steal a kiss. "I promise not to have an outburst of emotion over whatever you are so concerned about," he couldn't help but tease.

She had to grin at him for that. "You're adorable," she said. "Go ahead; open it for yourself." She got to her feet to give him room and a place to sit as she scrunched her shoulders to her ears, waiting for his reaction. She knew that, even with his promise to be calm, his reaction would be spectacularly dramatic.

She knew when he'd gotten to the line admitting that Sying's new passenger was a Shi'ar from the fact that he let out an involuntary hiss, and by the time he was done, he was on his feet and clearly trying _not _to have an outburst. For her sake and for the sake of his pride, since he _had _promised. Finally, he dipped his head down and turned to face her, his arms crossed and his fingers tapping against one arm.

"It sounds like he has it under control," Jubilee said quickly. "The plan is a good one."

"Storm can watch Ael and the girls while we go to space to deal with this," Noh said in a barely-controlled tone.

"He's going to think you don't trust him if we rush out," Jubilee pointed out.

"It's not _him _I don't trust," Noh said, glaring hard and unconsciously squaring up like he was ready for a fight.

"I know," she agreed. "I know. But if it's just the one, and he's dropping her off … he should be okay, right?"

"And if it was someone like Warbird, would you be so casual about 'only one'?"

She tipped her chin up slightly. "He knows how to take her down; you know he does."

Noh paced a small path as he tried to calm down. "That is not the point."

"Send him a message," Jubilee suggested. "And if he doesn't respond quick enough, we'll go. I'm sure he'll send more now that he's told us what the story is."

Noh shook his head and was still glaring but finally sat back down, muttering under his breath in Kree all the worst things that his people could call Shi'ar. "I'm tempted to use the emergency line," he grumbled.

"I wouldn't argue it," she promised in a breath. "If nothing else, it would ease your mind."

Noh frowned her way for a moment before he finally let out a breath and nodded, switching from Jubilee's laptop to his own computer in the next room to make the connection.

It took a few minutes to hail Sying, and Jubilee could tell that Noh was on edge the whole time. But to their relief, when Sying picked up on the other end, he seemed perfectly alright, even smiling. "Oh. So… you got my email, huh?" he said, looking sheepish.

"Yes," Noh said shortly.

"It was kind of a fluke thing," Sying tried to explain. "I thought I was helping a Ravager, but Andri'i was in the ship instead. And I wasn't just going to _leave _her in a burning ship. X-Men don't do that, right?"

Noh took in a breath through his nose. "No. I suppose not."

"So. Anyway. Um." Sying shifted slightly on the screen. "I, uh, haven't dropped her off yet. We're sort of… not… doing that."

"Oh?" Noh asked, and Jubilee decided not to point out that he'd left fingerprints in the table with how hard he was gripping it. "And what changed your plans?"

"Don't freak out," Sying said, first and foremost, which was really not helping things at all. "She… uh… she sort of kissed me and ... well ... she's really not that bad, Dad."

"Sweetheart, that's … not a very excited reaction to a kiss," Jubilee pointed out gently.

"I wasn't expecting it," Sying explained. "I'm… I'm still trying to figure it out."

"If you have to think that hard about it, you should probably just stick to the plan," Jubilee pointed out. "We are not the family to settle for anything less than amazing."

"I just don't know if I'm hesitant because I'm still hung up on Krissy or ... " He shrugged. "I'll figure it out, Mom; it's alright. I just didn't want you guys to freak out because she's a _Shi'ar_."

"No, why would _that _be concerning," Noh said dryly.

"We're more concerned that you're settling," Jubilee said, cutting across Noh before he could push their son into holding _tighter _to this blossoming relationship simply because he was getting pushback. She knew that was something she would have done at his age, and she knew Sying had a lot of her tendencies, even if he insisted that he wanted to be just like his father. "Even if it's short term, it's not right."

"It's not like I want to _marry _her, Mom. Come on," Sying said, rolling his eyes. "But, I mean, shouldn't I try and date around?"

"But if you settle here, you might _keep _settling," she said. "Just sayin'."

"Mom, nobody I've ever liked has liked me back," he pointed out. "I'd really like to try and date. I've never done it before."

"Well … try dating someone less … um … evil?"

"She's not _evil_, Mom. That's not fair. You always say we have to give people a chance," Sying pouted.

"And you did give her a chance, and you said she wasn't 'bad'," she argued, smirking quietly. "I'm just saying 'not bad' isn't very excited." She made a point to dramatically cover Noh's ears as she stage whispered to him. "It's okay! You can tell me if you actually _like _her." She was nodding her head with a grin as Noh did his best not to glare.

"That's just it: I'm not sure yet," Sying said, smiling despite himself at her antics. "But I'll let you know when I figure it out, okay?"

"I want daily updates," Jubilee said. "Or I can't guarantee that you won't get an unwanted rescue mission."

He couldn't help but laugh. "Alright, I promise I'll update every day — unless I'm in, like, a nebula or something, and then I literally can't."

"No, no," she said, shaking her head. "Try to anyhow. It might be slow, but it can still come through eventually."

He grinned and nodded. "Thanks, Mom. Love you too," he said before signing off.

"Those are not _my _genes in play," Noh said as soon as the screen went dark. He was breathing through his nose and looked like he wanted to hit something, and Jubilee shook her head at him.

"Oh _no_," Jubilee said, scrunching up her face. "You would _never _date outside of acceptable Kree warrior standards. Never ever."

"That is entirely different," Noh grumbled. "That was not… an _enemy_."

She leaned forward and kissed his nose before he could stand up. "Not to _you_."

He let out a breath; he could never stay huffy when Jubilee was turning up the charm like this. "But a _Shi'ar_, Jubilee," he said.

"He just wants to _explore_," Jubilee said, climbing onto his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck. "And he's keeping in touch. And _not hiding it from us._ Don't give him reason to hide things."

Noh let out a long sigh. "I would prefer to know these things," he admitted slowly. "But Jubilee…"

"I know," she said, leaning forward to start covering him with light kisses. "Say the word, and Wolvie and K will be right there to raze them to the ground. Wolvie's totally gone too long without a good fight, and he _so _needs to let off some aggression. We could take those feathered losers easy." As she spoke, she was sliding her hands up his shirt, too.

He shook his head lightly before he finally snagged her for a longer kiss. "Don't tempt me, Jubilee."

"Into what? Exactly?" she asked in a breath in his ear.

"Interplanetary conquest," he said with a smile as he kissed her again.

"Is that what I'm doing?"

He grinned and started to kiss her behind her ear. "Mmm, yes. I think so. And what was the question again?"

"I'm sure you'll remember eventually," she giggled.


	6. Disappointed

Elin was relieved to find that the team was keeping her busy enough that she didn't really seem to have the time to try and pretend like she cared about the dozens of super sickly sweet stories from all of the love-struck couples around her. Though that was a lot harder to do when Nolan sent her _another _bouquet of flowers — peonies this time — after Storm told him that she'd made the team.

_Congratulations! That's amazing, Elin. You're the first of your friends, right? Even ahead of the kids older than you, too. Wow! I can't wait to see you again. Let me take you out to celebrate. No pressure. Just two friends who have kissed before celebrating. Miss you, pretty girl. - Nolan_

But she couldn't help but think that his in-person reaction wouldn't be quite as enthusiastic. Not when he'd been so clear on telling her he had no plans to join himself.

She took the flowers into the kitchen, where Charlie was sitting with a cup of tea, alone for a change.

"Your whole family can't help but feel fourteen different things at once, can you?" Charlie teased lightly.

"I guess we're just more complex than people care to give us credit for," Elin replied with a little shrug, not really insulted, since she knew she couldn't help feeling the way she did and that Charlie was right anyhow. She set to work cutting the ends of the stems on the peonies and put them into water in a fresh vase before she set them on the counter across from Charlie. "Do you think your mom will be irritated if I leave these here? Peonies are a little strong-smelling for a small room."

Charlie shook her head lightly. "I don't think so," she said. "Are those from Nolan?"

Elin nodded as she shoved the card into her back pocket. "It was a congratulatory bouquet."

"Well, they're nice," Charlie said. "You're a little irritated, though. Flattered, but irritated. "

"It's hard to read someone by words alone," Elin admitted. "But I think he's trying to be nice."

Charlie nodded. "Trying," she repeated with a small smirk.

She shrugged her shoulders up to her ears. "I didn't tell him I made the team. Storm did."

"Oh." Charlie nodded. "Well, I'm sure you'll figure out why," she said with an almost inscrutable expression.

"I already _know _why. It's mostly because I don't know where I'm going to be next year," Elin said. "And I don't want to give him the wrong idea when I can't even know what he's after."

"I think it's pretty obvious what he's after, but that's just me," Charlie said with a shrug.

"That's because you're one of 'them' now," Elin teased.

"It's not quite as bad as I thought it would be," Charlie admitted, blushing lightly. "It is still a bit strange knowing when he gets all… nervy, though."

"Yeah, well. Conflicting emotions all over are not fun to smell either," Elin agreed.

"I'll bet."

The phone in Elin's back pocket chimed, and she pulled it out to check the email, shaking her head at Charlie all the while.

_Elin,_

_So. My parents are going to kill me._

_I'm sort of, kind of dating the Shi'ar girl I picked up._

_I mean…. I don't know if you can call it dating. I'm still not sure myself. I just know my dad is going to kill me when he finds out we've been kissing._

_I don't know, Elin. I mean, she just… kissed me? I don't know what to do. She's… I mean, she's a pretty good kisser?_

_I'm in so much trouble._

_~Sying_

Elin stared at the email for a moment, her heart racing — concerned for Sying and whatever trouble he was getting into with this Shi'ar girl. This wasn't at all what she'd expected to hear from him.

_Sying -_

_I don't know what to tell you. Do you like her? Has the ship moved now? Or is this entirely a self-marooned situation? What's the story with the feathers? But really _— _do you _like her_? I'm sure it kinda feels like a real 'Romeo and Juliet' kind of thing, but just remember: they both died in the end._

_Love you_

_\- Elin._

When she had finished typing and looked up, Charlie was watching her with a deeply-settled frown. "Bad news?"

"Um … kind of? Maybe? I really don't know yet." Elin let out a sigh and tapped her phone against her other palm. "I guess it just makes things clearer." She chewed on her lip for a moment before her head popped up, and she locked gazes with Charlie. "Do you know where your Dad is? I have to ask him a question."

Charlie nodded. "He's in his office. But maybe you should wait until you're less… disappointed."

"No, he should know about that too," Elin said. "Just in case it all blows up."

"Sounds serious."

"Maybe, maybe not … I think it's a wait and see, but …" She tipped her head to the side. "I know what happens when the family tries to keep it all under wraps for too long."

Charlie made it a point to get up and give her arm a squeeze. "Say the word, and I'll find us a nice, quiet spot to get away from stupid. Girls night."

"I just need to ask him a few questions — let him know about this nonsense — and then I think I'm going to go for a good run."

"That bad, huh?"

"Depends on what he has to say," Elin pointed out before she turned to leave the kitchen. "Do you want to come with? It'll save me a lot of breath explaining later."

"Sure," Charlie agreed, catching up to her in an instant.

The two girls headed down to Scott's office, and Elin paused for just a second before she knocked on the door.

"Come on in," Scott called out, from where he was working out a few notes on his human-mutant relations class.

Elin glanced at Charlie and pushed the door open, then put her hands in her pockets. "Are you very busy? Because I have a couple of questions — and some news. Which do you want first?"

Scott smiled lightly and gestured at the seat in front of his desk. "I guess that depends on how involved the questions are and if the news is related to the questions."

"Unrelated — and I won't waste your time," Elin replied.

"I really don't mind," he promised. "Why don't we start with the questions?"

"Okay," she said, nodding once before she drew in a deep breath. "Storm wanted me to spend a semester in LA, running a few of her courses — can I do that and not lose my spot on the team? Or is it too soon?"

Scott tipped his head to the side as he considered it. "You'd need to come back here twice a month for team training. If you slip, you'll have to make it up or get cut. That's the rules."

"That's fine, I know Dad said if I went, he'd want me back on the weekends for our training."

"And if I need you for an all-hands-on-deck situation…"

She scrunched up her nose. "Of course. Not even a question."

"Then I don't see any reason you shouldn't get to try different classes," Scott said. He smirked. "Actually, I think Storm's on the right track. She has a great program for nurturing leadership, and you really could do well leading — when you're ready."

"So … like …in eighty years or so, right?" She couldn't help but smirk. "If I go by how long it took my big brother to grow up, that is. Girls are quicker ..."

He smirked. "I think you'll be ready before you expect. You're already doing a lot without realizing it."

She blushed at the complement, not expecting it at all. "Okay … if you say so."

"Did you have any other questions, or…"

"No, that was it for the questions," she said, shaking her head before she cleared her throat. "The news … I'm not sure ... " Elin let out all of her breath in a woosh. "Alright. Sying has been emailing me outside of the group emails that everyone gets, and he said that he picked up a stranded Shi'ar girl a little while back — and apparently, they're a couple now. Kinda." She held up both hands and handed him the phone with the open text thread for him to read as she gave him a synopsis. "I know that's not the kind of news anyone really cares about, but Noh and Jubilee are going to hit the roof — if they haven't found out already — and if this goes south … I thought you might want to be prepared for the inevitable deep space rescue mission."

Scott had both eyebrows high on his head as he leaned back, clearly thinking it over. "I'm glad you let me know," he said. "You're right. All things considered, especially with how things have been between the Kree and Shi'ar, that's good to know."

"He was going to drop her off as soon as he picked her up, but now, it's getting more complicated, and I'm a little concerned."

"He's a lot like his mother that way," Scott said, then held up a hand. "I'll keep an ear to the ground, I promise. We'll make sure to keep a jet in the hangar until things come to a head — or settle out. Either way."

She looked honestly relieved to hear it as Scott gave her the phone back with a frown. "I promise I'll let you know if his messages change or if something weird happens. But he's been really good about keeping up with me, so ..." Elin stood up and again put her hands in her back pockets. "That's … all, really. Unless _you _have questions now, I think I'm going to go take a little run."

Scott didn't slow her down, and Elin turned to shrug Charlie's way before she headed out, leaving the two Summerses alone together.

"She's … not doing well with all the couples," Charlie said mildly.

"How so?" Scott asked with a small frown.

"It's a whole lot of mixed-up emotions, for one thing." Charlie shrugged. "Gives me a headache too."

"Are you sure that's all?"

Charlie shook her head. "I'm not spilling anyone's secrets, Dad."

Scott chuckled at that. "I'm not asking you to. I'm just making sure I have the whole picture."

Charlie rolled her eyes at him. "Uh-huh." She leaned forward and rolled her shoulder. "It's just that, well, it's high school, Dad. Everybody's dating and falling in love and being ridiculous. It's kind of… uncomfortable if you're not one of those that is in a couple."

Scott watched Charlie for a long moment before he slowly nodded. "I'd tell you it gets better, but then I'd be lying to you," he said, "considering most of the original team didn't settle down until, oh, about the time you were born."

"Oh, don't worry. Bobby already told me—"

"Wait." He held up both hands. "You're listening to _Bobby_ on dating?"

"Why not? He's my brother, isn't he?"

Scott stared at her for a second before he leaned forward and rubbed his forehead. "Alright, Charlie. Very funny."

Charlie smirked at him. "Love you too, Dad," she said before she practically skipped out of Scott's office.

* * *

When Elin got in from her run, she headed up to her family's suite and took a minute to talk over the LA school situation with her father one more time before she gave Storm a call to let her know that she was planning to go there in the fall if she still had room for her.

"This doesn't have anything to do with Nolan, does it?" Storm teased.

Elin let out a sound that bordered on disbelief. "Please. I hardly return his emails. I'm not moving across the country for _him_." She shook her head to herself. "I don't care about that stuff yet. I'm too young to get wrapped up in a boy badly enough to cross the country for him. He's not even that cute." She wasn't expecting to relay _all _of that, but it was the truth.

Storm's smile was easily heard in her voice as she replied evenly, "Oh yes, I'm sure that's the case. At least until you find yourself closer to someone you care about."

"Yeah, okay. We'll see," Elin said in an irritated tone. "So do you want me to come out or not?"

"Of course I do," Storm replied. "I'll send you the list of what you'll need and when you'll need to be here — _after _I see your final scores for this year, of course."

"Thank you, Aunt 'Ro," Elin said, relaxing a little more before she ended the call and let out all of her breath. This was getting difficult. She still had Krissy mad at her for joining the team. She supposed she _should _tell her about this before the time came up for her to leave — or Charlie slipped and let her know on accident.

Elin thought about it for a long while before she crafted up a quick text to Krissy. _Since you need to know the up-to-the-minute goings on, you should know: I had a cup of tea ten minutes ago, and I'm going to LA next fall. That is all._

_Ummmmmm. One of those things is not like the other._

_Well, you wanted to know updates. You've been updated. Carry on._

There was a poof of purple as Krissy appeared in front of her. "Ummm?" she said, holding both hands out.

"What?" Elin slipped down onto her side from where she was sitting on her bed. "You wanted to know when things happen — and this technically isn't happening until fall. I'm even way early."

"I didn't even know you _wanted _to go to LA!" Krissy protested.

"I wasn't thinking about it until Storm brought it up. It's new."

"Oh." Krissy thought it over for a second and then let out her breath before she reached over and hugged Elin. "I'm going to miss you _terribly_."

"Oh please," she said, rolling her eyes. "I'll be back at least twice a month for team practices and every weekend for Dad."

"See, now I _have _to go out for the team. How else will I see you?"

"I'll send pictures," Elin replied airily. "You'll be so busy with other things next year, you won't even know I'm gone."

"Such lies you tell me," Krissy said, shaking out her hair before she leaned over and kissed Elin's cheek. "It's alright. I can almost teleport into the next city. It'll only take me… a gazillion 'ports to get to you."

"Really, you won't notice," Elin said, shaking her head. "I'll be here a lot. Whenever Dad or Scott says so."

"Then all the time," Krissy surmised, smiling wider when she realized she wasn't losing her best friend.

"Sounds right," Elin agreed. "I'll probably only be enrolled in name only."

Krissy let out all her breath. "Well, that's not so bad," she decided. "And thank you for telling me. That was better than springing it on me in September," she teased.

"It would have been _August_, come on. Give me some credit. And you'll be too wrapped up in trying to get ready for your team tryout anyhow, so I'm told."

Krissy shrugged. "Well, if you go by _Chance_, that's true." She rolled her eyes as dramatically as possible and tossed her head up at the ceiling.

"So you're not interested then?" Elin asked. "No team stuff yet?"

"Oh, no. No, no, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying _he's _super wrapped up in it. Like… since before you did it. And now he thinks everyone will just think he's doing it because you did it — and he's an _idiot _sometimes, I swear to you."

Elin frowned, wondering why in the world anyone would think _that. _"Well, it won't be a problem once I'm outta here."

"That's not true," Krissy said. "He's just an idiot. Always has been. A very cute idiot."

"_Boy._"

Krissy laughed at that. "Love you, Ellie."

"Yeah, love you too."


	7. What You Were Born To Do

"Seriously, he's not going to bite you. He's your dad," Krissy said.

She was standing in the hallway that led to Scott's office with Chance's hand in hers as he tried to get up the courage to go and ask his dad if he could try out for the team. This was the third time in two days, too. And she was starting to get a little annoyed. So, she pulled on his hand until he turned, and then, she gave him a very gentle but very long kiss until she felt like the proper amount of time had passed that his stupid ego was caught up.

But it seemed to have the opposite effect she wanted, because when she pulled back, Chance was grinning at her. "I mean," he said, "we could always just go out—"

"No." She shook her head and put both hands in the center of his chest. "No. You are impossible to be around right now, and I know it's because you're kicking yourself for not doing this, so just do it." She grabbed him by both shoulders and spun him around, using her tail as leverage to yank one of his feet too so that he was off balance enough that he had no choice but to turn. "Go. Please. You're no fun like this."

"C'mon, Kris—"

"I'm one hundred percent serious, and you know I hate being serious."

Chance couldn't help but smirk at that. "Fine," he said, which earned him a triumphant smile from Krissy before he shook his head at her and went to the office door. He was only partway through the door before Krissy shut it behind him and practically knocked him into the room, and he turned around to glare at it before he turned back to his dad. "So. Um. How… how do I start the tryouts?" he asked.

Scott smirked at him. "Are you sure you don't want to put it off another seven or eight years?"

Chance gave him a dry look. "Really."

"Really, I'm surprised you haven't done this yet," Scott said. "But you need to talk to Storm and Kitty to schedule your tests and then come find me."

Chance nodded. "Alright. Yeah. I can do that." He nodded again. "And ... um ... I just…" He blew out his breath. "This isn't just because Elin did it, okay?"

"I didn't think it was," Scott promised. "You've been saying you wanted to be on the team for a while now."

"Yeah." Chance nodded another couple of times. "I just… yeah." He took a deep breath and headed for the door before Scott stopped him.

"Chance, you're going to be fine. Just relax."

"Yeah, I'll do that when this part's over, thanks," Chance muttered before he slipped out the door.

Almost as soon as he was out of the office, there was a poof of purple right in front of him. "Well?" Krissy asked.

He grinned at her and kissed her. "I gotta call Storm, but then let's go get some ice cream or something, okay?"

"I'll drive."

"'Port."

"Same thing."

Chance's test with Storm had gone really well, and he was feeling pretty good about the whole thing when he came out of it… but that didn't change the fact that Kitty's test was supposed to be focused on tech, and he knew he wasn't as good at it as he wanted to be. He wasn't a fan of computers, and the computers were not a fan of him. He didn't know why, but they just didn't speak the same language.

So when he got to Kitty's test, he was sure to tell her as much. "I'm probably going to have to do this a few times," he admitted.

"Oh please," Kitty said with a wave. "You can't possibly be that bad."

"With tech?" He rubbed the back of his neck. "Pretty much. I can fight anyone or fly anything, but me and computers … suck."

"And I'm sure your test results will all work to your strengths," Kitty said. "That's part of it: knowing exactly where you are. If you can manage a few basic things, you'll be fine."

Chance nodded and then took a deep breath. "Alright, but if I accidentally break your tech, you can't say I didn't warn you," he said with a small smirk.

"It wouldn't be the first time," she said before phasing through the wall and walking up into the booth of the Danger Room. "Ready when you are."

"Hit me with your best shot!" he called back up to her.

Kitty grinned his way, and in an instant, Chance found himself fighting through a whole slew of Starjammers. "You need to disable their targeting system," she called out after he ducked and covered.

Despite his earlier nerves, Chance couldn't help but grin when he heard it. That wasn't so bad. That was just… part of a ship, and he'd done plenty of work on Sying's ship and his own. He had figured this would be more about hacking and that sort of thing. Not space fights.

He ducked another Starjammer and then dropped low to kick his feet out from underneath him before vaulting over the guy toward where he knew the bridge would be — though he was annoyed when a security wall lit up in front of him that he'd have to get through.

Oh, now the hacking comes in. I see, he thought to himself.

It took him a couple tries to get through the security panel — like he'd told Kitty, he was just not good with codes, and he really wanted to shoot the thing and get it over with — but after getting through that, and another one that popped up in its place, he finally got to the bridge where the main controls were. And while he was at it, he shot the door controls so the stupid Starjammers would stop. Shooting. At him. Because that was annoying when he was trying to focus and not totally flunk this test.

He let out a little "aha" when he yanked the controls for the targeting system and then looked up at the booth. "Can I strand them too? They're kind of annoying me."

"Would it screw up your escape?" Kitty asked.

"Well, how did I get here? Do I have a separate ship?"

"Um … let's say you were captured. And valiantly escaped," Kitty said. "Just to see what you can figure out from there."

Chance tipped his head to the side. "Okay," he said, looking over the controls for a moment before he started to slowly grin. "Okay," he said again, this time slipping into the pilot's seat and then looking over the nav controls. "And…. this way to Earth," he said, pulling on the stick to turn the ship around with a smirk. With the doors still jammed, no one could stop him anyway.

He kept right on grinning to himself as he got used to the controls, and from there, it actually wasn't such a bad ride until the sim cut out before he could even get into friendly space.

When the simulation ended, Kitty was wiping tears from her eyes from all the laughter and holding her stomach. "Oh. Oh, Peter is going to love this."

"What?" Chance looked up at the booth. "You said I didn't have another ship."

"Oh, no, you did beautifully, really," she said, grinning before she phased through the wall to air walk down to him. "Really. Your dad … oh man."

"Did I do it wrong?" he asked with a frown.

"No, no!" Kitty said, grinning broadly. "You so totally passed. Oh my God. So totally passed. But you have to tell your dad how you got through the sim. And I need to get Logan so we can watch. It's a requirement."

"O...kay," Chance said. "I think I'm missing the joke here."

"You so are, but I promise we'll fill you in." She was already texting Logan — and telling him to meet her in Scott's office. Now.

Chance still looked totally bemused as he followed Kitty out of the Danger Room, though considering how hard Kitty was laughing, he was sure it had to be something good, anyway.

Logan met them at the end of the hall, frowning at her when he saw them. "What the hell's going on now?"

"She won't tell me," Chance said.

"Shut up and come with us," Kitty said, grinning still. "He's going to tell his dad how he beat the

Starjammer's program I put him through."

Logan glanced over at Chance with a bemused smile. "Oh, did he now?"

Kitty was bouncing in place. "Oh yeah. It was beautiful. Peter would be proud."

"I just… did what I thought I was supposed to?" Chance said, clearly and completely confused.

Kitty put an arm around his shoulders and gave him a squeeze. "Oh, you so, so did." She knocked on Scott's door and then immediately pushed it open before Scott could answer. "Go on. Tell him what you did."

Chance grinned quietly at Scott and waved with one hand. "I, uh, beat Kitty's program."

"He didn't just beat it," Kitty said, both arms up in the air as she gestured grandly. "He hijacked the Starjammer's head spaceship!" She was delighted, and an instant later, Logan was absolutely dying laughing next to her — tears in his eyes, the whole nine yards. "He could have taken an escape pod?" Kitty continued. "But no. No …." She was shaking her head slowly, wearing a proud smile. "No. Your boy TOOK THE WHOLE SHIP!"

Scott looked between Logan and Kitty and then Chance as he started to grin despite himself. "Well, that's one way to do it."

"It made sense," Chance argued. "I was already in the cockpit anyway."

At that, Logan was positively clutching his chest and laughing so hard he couldn't properly take a breath, and he went down to the floor before he finally got enough of a breath to burst out with a loud HA that just kept going — and Kitty wasn't far behind him.

"Seriously, someone needs to clue me in to the joke, because I thought I did alright," Chance muttered.

"You did exactly what you were born to do," Logan got out between breaths, but that just had Kitty gasping.

"Don't mind them," Scott said, shaking his head and still smiling before he pulled Chance into a hug and ruffled his hair. "Sounds to me like you made your own exit plan."

"Well, she said the test was supposed to run to my strengths, and I'm a good pilot, so I thought…" Chance shrugged openly. "It made sense."

"No, no, you did well," Scott assured him, shaking his head at his two teammates on the floor laughing.

Logan and Kitty had finally more or less gotten a hold of themselves, though they were both still sitting on the floor, and she was leaning on him and still wiping tears from her eyes. "Really, Chance, you so totally passed. The laughing … oh. Your dad will have to explain that to you when he's ready. Oh God." She was giggling again, and it was clear Logan wasn't far behind her.

"Oh, so I'm never gonna get it," Chance muttered, but that just had Logan laughing all over again and nodding at the snarky response.

Scott gave both of them a dry look before he shook his head. "It's just that Corsair ran the Starjammers," he tried to explain, seeing as everyone was waiting for him to step in. "And pretty much took what he wanted."

"Space pirate!" Kitty stage whispered, though she was getting it together enough to not laugh outright. "It's genetic!"

"No, no," Logan said, shaking his head. "Scott would never do anything like that." He was barely holding it back. "Must skip a generation."

That got an even drier look from Scott as Chance started to grin. "I gotta tell Krissy."

Logan and Kitty both fell apart all over again, laughing just as hard as they had been before. "Oh, Kurt's going to kill you," Kitty said to Logan, but he held up a hand to cut her off.

"Oh no. I had nothing to do with this one." Logan said as he shook his head. "He's gonna kill you for not cluing him in faster. I didn't know what was going on until you got him in the office."

They didn't have to wait long to find out who Kurt would kill, either, because once Chance had caught up to Krissy to tell her about how his test had gone, it only took a few minutes after that before Kurt teleported to where Kitty was with a look of pure betrayal.

Logan pointed at Kitty before Kurt could say anything. "I had nothing to do with it."

"Oh, I will get to you in a moment," Kurt promised, pointing Logan's way before he turned toward Kitty. "And you — katzchen, how could you not tell me there was a space pirate in our midst?" He looked totally betrayed.

"I just found out!" Kitty said, grinning widely. "Swear to God."

"And you told Logan but not me?" He put his hand over his heart. "What have I done to offend you?"

"No," Kitty said, her smile mostly slipping away. "No, no, no … that … he just … look at him! He's laughing so hard he's crying!"

"Yes, I saw, and you—" He turned toward Logan. "Now I have my own daughter thrilled with her new space pirate of a boyfriend!"

Logan started laughing all over again, totally unapologetically. "I didn't say anything that wasn't already said."

"Logan!" Kurt looked somewhere between betrayed and, despite himself, totally and completely amused.

"Mostly he just laughed," Kitty agreed. "Hard."

Kurt shook his head at the pair of them. "And you," he said, turning to Kitty, "you and I are going to the booth. At the very least, I want to see this for myself."


	8. This Is Very Bad

"Are you sure this ship is space worthy?" Andri'i asked lazily, leaning against the doorway as she watched Sying working on the _Wonder's_ engines. Again.

"She is," Sying said without looking up from what he was doing. "And if you'd stop questioning her, she would probably do a lot better."

"Because she'll lose faith if I'm _mean_."

"Because it's annoying me, and she needs something to run on."

"Hmm." Andri'i leaned a little further against the wall and then very suddenly tipped sideways when the wall moved, barely catching herself as she ruffled her feathers and sniffed at the wall. "The feeling is entirely mutual."

Sying rolled his eyes. "And that is why we're been stranded for days."

"No, we've been stranded because you don't take a firm enough hand with your ship."

"Yeah, that's the problem here," he muttered before he climbed out of the engine again, shaking his head. "Look, I already alerted the Guardians that I wasn't gonna make it to our rendezvous, so I'm sure they'll come looking, but just in case, I'm going to turn on the emergency beacon."

"That's going to attract scavengers," she said with a frown.

"The _Wonder's _not going to let any scavengers on board," Sying assured her.

"You'll understand if I don't trust the ship that's left us stranded this entire time," Andri'i replied evenly.

Sying let out a long breath and shook his head before he headed to the communications panel and set the beacon. He paused over the emergency button too and bit his lip. Maybe just… one more day.

He let out a breath and was about to hit it when there was a proximity alert, and the _Wonder _seemed to whir to life all at once.

"Oh, so you can fight, but you can't fly. I see how it is," Sying said, shaking his head at the ship as he rushed toward the cockpit and swore under his breath in Kree and several other languages. Judging by the fact that there were about five Shi'ar ships on the screen, Sying somehow didn't think that this was a coincidence.

"When did she start broadcasting our position?" he asked the _Wonder_ in a low tone, and the ship made the most insulted possible noise. "I know you can mask signals. I just mean…" He shook his head. "She must have done it on the Ravager ship. Called in reinforcements. Or she has a beacon of her own…"

He didn't have much time to think it over, though, before he was under fire.

Even with the high-stakes danger involved, Sying couldn't help but grin to himself. He and the _Wonder _were finally back in sync, and it felt familiar as the two of them ducked and weaved through the heavy fire that they were taking. They even managed to clip the wings of one of the ships and hit the engine of a second before the _Wonder _took a devastating hit that reverberated through the whole ship.

Sying's eyes went wide, and before he could right the _Wonder_, they took another hit just like it that simply crippled them, the lights flickering and dying to emergency lighting only — which meant the Shi'ar must have hit the engine.

The _Wonder _was shuddering as Sying raced through it just in time to see the Shi'ar blast a hole in the side of his ship. With a low hiss, he sprang toward the Shi'ar at full speed, pushing one of them backward into the other hard enough that he flew back into the ship with his companion and stopped up the entrance before Sying tossed in a plasmoid that blew through their armor.

He burst into the Shi'ar ship to simply start hitting anyone he could, furious at the damage they had done to his ship and furious that Andri'i had brought them here. He knew it had to be her. There was no way five Shi'ar ships just _happened _to show up as soon as he had broken radio silence to reach out to the Guardians.

He never had quite learned how to do a white run — it was the hardest part of training with his dad, and it required total and complete focus — so he wasn't cutting through Shi'ar as fast as he knew he could if he could do _that_. But the damage he _could _do when coupled with some rather large and impressive plasmoids was pretty well devastating.

He had burst through nearly half of the Shi'ar ship when there was a shuddering explosion that rocked the entire craft and threw Sying off-balance — but that wasn't what put him on the ground. He would have been able to right himself in time, but the explosion coupled with the sudden sense of agony and then complete and utter silence coming from where the _Wonder _had just been was enough to send Sying staggering to his knees.

He had actually _felt _the moment that his ship died, and it had him reeling.

Which meant that he absolutely wasn't ready for it when the Shi'ar hit him with some kind of stasis field that sent jolts of electricity down his spine, bringing him the rest of the way to unconsciousness after his ship's destruction had already brought him partway there.

* * *

Back at the Institute, Chance was getting ready for his test with his dad, though his nerves weren't nearly as high as they'd been before Kitty's test. Scott had told him he'd been ready for a while, so really, this felt more like a formality than anything.

But before Scott could actually _begin _the simulation in the Danger Room he got the notification that Sying's ship was in trouble. "We're going to have to put this off for just a little bit," Scott said. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be back before you know it."

"What's going on?"

"Emergency beacon from Sying," Scott said as he stepped past Chance, his comm already in his hand to tell the team to gather up. He headed right down to the War Room, with Chance right on his heels, though Chance paused when he saw that Elin was there with her parents and the rest of the group waiting to hear what the plan was.

It was still weird to see her with the rest of the X-Men and not be there right alongside her.

Of course, all three Howletts volunteered for the run to get Sying, but Scott was sure that it was going to be too hot for Elin's first real space mission. "Your parents have already volunteered before the beacon went off," Scott told her. "And though I'd normally keep one of them here, you can cover their spot on the team if we need a tracker while they're gone."

Elin glanced over at her dad for just a second before she nodded, though it was clear she was nervous at taking over on her mom and dad's position while they were out in space.

"Noh, Jubilee, do you think the four of you will be enough?" Scott asked, turning to two furious-looking parents on the screen of the War Room. "And I don't want the 'destroyer of worlds' spiel. Honestly. Will four be enough?" He brought up the hologram projection to show the sector where the beacon _had _been broadcasting from and even caught the moment that it blinked out entirely. "He's obviously under attack."

"Four of us were enough to liberate an entire work camp on Hala; I think whoever is attacking him will find that they are hopelessly outclassed," Noh pointed out.

"Yeah, that really wasn't even breakin' a sweat," Logan agreed. "We can do it with four just fine."

Scott nodded once. "Keep in contact. I don't want to lose any one of you — or him. Kitty will get in touch with the Guardians to try and get a better idea of what's going on — and hopefully they'll get to him before you even have to."

"We'll be there to pick you up shortly," Noh agreed before signing off.

Chance looked between the others in the room and took a deep breath. He knew his dad was going to be coordinating things and making sure everything was covered there at him… and watching everyone around him burst into action to go and help his friend, he couldn't just stand there.

He didn't even put much thought into it before he was headed down to the hangar, watching and waiting for the _Marvel _to arrive with Jubilee and Noh in it. And when it did touch down and Logan and K hurried toward it, Chance came around behind the _Marvel, _frowning up at the ship.

He reached up and touched the angrily thrumming walls and nodded. "Yeah, I know. He's in trouble." He didn't exactly know what else to do, so he muttered, "Fly fast, okay?"

To his total surprise, the back wall of the _Marvel _simply opened up for him, right into one of the rooms of the ship. "Oh… okay," he said, glancing around the hangar before he climbed in and the wall sealed up behind him. He glanced around the room and couldn't help but grin when he realized that the _Marvel _even had a couple energy weapons in this room for him.

"Oh yeah. I can use these," he said, standing up to pull them off the wall as the _Marvel _hummed at him.

* * *

When Sying started to stir back to consciousness, he still could feel a faint buzzing in the very back of his teeth from the stasis field, but he shook his head to try to dispel the feeling. He was still sort of tingly, which meant he'd used up his healing stores; he'd need to eat something to make up the difference.

All of this ran through his head in the space of a few seconds as his hearing started to come back first and then his vision, and he saw that he was in a bare room with only one door, though all things considered, that wasn't entirely surprising. The _real _question was where the room was when it was part of a bigger whole.

He rubbed his head and shook it slightly, though when he did that, he noticed for the first time that there was something around his neck. Wide-eyed, he slowly brought his hand down to run over the thick metal collar, but as soon as he touched it, there was a noise like a high-pitched whine, so insistent and so intense that it instantly had him on his knees. He wasn't sure if he should clap his hands over his ears or… well. His whole _body _was shaking, and it didn't let up even after he very quickly removed his hand from the collar.

It took far too long for the sound to subside, and by the time it was over, Sying was on the floor, curled in on himself and unable to process anything but the noise. The problem was that it wasn't _pain_, per se, so he wasn't as good at rerouting it. The pathways were different. It was overwhelming, overtaking his senses, and at just the right frequency that it literally got under his skin so he couldn't _ignore _it.

He hadn't even _noticed _that anyone else was in the small, bare room as he gasped and tried to get a hold of himself again — until he heard a familiar voice.

"You shouldn't have done that."

Sying glanced up immediately when he heard Andri'i, who was standing there at the door and leaning against the wall, watching him. He wanted to rush her and throw her against the wall, demand answers, but he was still shaky. So instead, he said, "You're one to talk."

Andri'i grinned at him and then stepped slightly forward from the doorway, crouching down to be at his level. "These are incredibly expensive, you know," she said, reaching out but not quite touching the metal around his neck as Sying glared up at her. "You should be proud. It's not just any slave who rates one of these; it means you're stronger than the usual Kree — not that you didn't know that already."

For a moment, Sying stared at her in pure disbelief. He could hardly believe what he was hearing — and she was just… standing there and acting like this was no big deal. And it was the fact that she seemed to frown at his total shock as if she couldn't believe he was taking it this way — that was what got him to snap.

In a second, he had her pinned against the wall, his eyes narrowed, holding her arms so that if there was any way to activate the thing around his neck — and he wouldn't put it past her — she wouldn't be able to reach it. "What's going on?" he demanded.

"You _should _be thanking me!" Andri'i said, though she didn't make a move to get out of his grasp, holding his gaze with a satisfied sort of smile. "_Most _Shi'ar who find out a Kree is even _looking _at their daughter would kill you on the spot — or, if they have enough standing, kill you in the public square."

"So, what, this is your way of keeping your parents from shooting me?" Sying said, shaking his head. "That doesn't add up. You could have _not _told them where we were."

"They were going to find us anyway. I called for help when the Skrulls attacked," Andri'i said, her tone perfectly reasonable. "You _should _be thanking me," she said again, this time with a bit more heat. "My parents _were _going to give you as a gift at the emperor's son's wedding, but I convinced them to let you work for us instead."

He stared at her openly, in simple shock. He couldn't believe she would even _consider_… Didn't she know… How could she… He couldn't even form the thought to ask — to _demand _a better explanation.

She frowned slightly. "Don't you get it?" she said, finally starting to squirm in his grasp, trying to lean in a little closer to him as she dropped her voice to a whisper. "No one's going to _care _what I do with you if you're just a slave."

At the tone of her voice, or the implication, or the fact that she was so close — or maybe some combination thereupon — Sying instinctively dropped his hold on her and took a step back, his eyes wider even than before as he started to slowly shake his head. "You… you can't be serious."

"Of course I am," Andri'i said matter-of-factly, taking a step forward to close the space and get as close as she had been before. She reached out and grabbed his hand.

He yanked his hand back from her and took another two steps backward, though that was as far as he could get in the enclosed space before he hit the wall. "No," he said, shaking his head still.

"What?"

"No," he said again, his hands balled into fists. "No, Andri'i. This is _not _a good idea. It's a _terrible _idea. It's cruel and controlling and—" He gestured to the collar he was wearing. "—and painful! This is _not _how you treat someone you care about!"

Andri'i looked surprised — though whether that was because Sying so rarely raised his voice or because she apparently couldn't understand how taking your boyfriend hostage and forcing him into slavery was such a bad idea, Sying really couldn't tell.

"Get this thing _off _me," Sying continued, his voice still raised. This time, when he picked her up and slammed her into the wall, she at least had the sense to try to get out of his grasp. "I'm not going to play along with whatever this is."

"It's not a _game_," Andri'i shot back. "Why can't you just grow up and accept that this is how things _are_?"

Sying felt the low hiss bubble up in his throat and past his lips instinctively as he raised her up a little higher, off her feet — but before he could do anything else, that same sound from before came crashing over him, even more intense than before. He dropped Andri'i and fell to his hands and knees, gasping and clawing at the ground from some relief.

Someone kicked him hard enough to send him sprawling, and when his back hit the wall, he curled in, this time more protectively, on instinct. His hands were shaking as he covered his head, but whatever this was, it made it impossible to do anything more than just try to minimize whatever damage was coming.

To his surprise, though, there was nothing — yet — except for that same sound. Not that anyone would _need _to do anything else to make their point, considering Sying was tucked into a ball and shaking. He was trying to figure out a way to reroute the sensation, but he just… couldn't _concentrate_.

The first time, the sound had eventually let up, but this time, it kept going for far, _far _longer. No matter how tightly he curled into a ball or how he tried to distance himself or hold his breath, he couldn't get away from it. He could feel his skin — or, at least, the tympanic membrane — starting to split, especially right around his neck and shoulders, and it felt like hours later when the sound finally let up.

By that time, Sying was still shaking even after the sound left, his hands over his head, his knees tucked in. His neck and shoulders were purple and blue in a sort of jagged criss-cross pattern — and he didn't have anything in him to heal just yet.

A man's voice filled the room after that, and for as sensitive as Sying was to sound at that point, he couldn't help flinching at it.

"If you _ever _threaten my daughter like that again, I won't turn the collar off until the damage is far more permanent," the man said. For as badly as Sying's hearing was off-kilter, it sounded as if he was shouting just inches from Sying, even though Sying could feel the tip of a boot in his side that told him that wasn't the case.

_Most dads just buy a shotgun, _Sying thought, almost hysterically, but he was still shaking too badly to get himself under control enough to actually say it.

"You won't be getting out," the man said, and Sying continued to flinch at the sound. "The moment you go anywhere unauthorized, you'll be on the ground. And with no ship, just how far do you think a Kree slave is going to get anyway?" He chuckled darkly. "Do as you're told, and keep your filthy hands to yourself — think you can manage that much, Kree?"

Sying finally managed to uncurl the slightest bit, peering up between his arms as he slowly lowered them to see the tall Shi'ar looking so smug that there was simply no way Sying was going to let it slide. He was exhausted, but slowly, holding the man's gaze, he shook his head 'no.'

"No?" The man narrowed his eyes at Sying, and Sying held his gaze before, without any warning, Andri'i's father pulled a long blade from his hip and jammed it into Sying's side. He didn't hit anything vital, but it was exactly at a pressure point that all Kree had and that all Shi'ar knew how to find. Sying had just a split second of warning to route the pain to his auditory cortex — though considering how sensitive he was to sound, that still left him gasping as the stab wound sounded like an orchestra warming up.

The man watched Sying's reaction almost critically, seemingly disappointed that what would have had any other Kree screaming just had the young man in front of him gasping, before he pulled the blade back out and frowned deeper. "Andri'i told me you can heal," he told Sying before he sheathed the blade. "Behave, and you just might be allowed to eat." He gestured at Sying's side. "Otherwise, an injury like that…" He smiled cruelly. "I understand it's excruciating to heal from normally."

Sying was starting to get the shaking under control, and he held the man's gaze easily, ignoring his side in favor of making sure the Shi'ar knew he wasn't going to let them run him over. "If you were going to kill me," he said softly, though his ears were positively ringing with the sound of his own voice, "you'd have done it by now."

"Don't get ahead of yourself," Andri'i's father sneered. "You're alive because you might be useful to me." He paused and allowed the sneer to deepen. "But please, continue to prove me wrong. I'm sure we can find a way to make your execution public and painful, even with your little parlor tricks." Once more, he paused, seeming to enjoy the thought before he got around to sharing it. "We'll send the footage to the X-Men as a greeting card."

Sying's eyed widened, and he shook his head, though he was having a hard time pushing himself up. Pain or no, his body was shaking, and he had been stabbed. He wasn't going anywhere.

"You really think we kept you alive because my daughter felt beholden to you for her life?" Andri'i's father asked with a laugh that had Sying's ears ringing — and not just from the effects of the collar. "We know exactly who you are, Sying-Varr."

"Then you know you can't keep me here," Sying whispered.

"The X-Men don't even know where you are. Your father—"

"It's my _mother _you should worry about," Sying cut in, starting to gain a little steam. "She'll blow you all sky high when she hears about this." He clenched his fingers into fists, sure that under normal circumstances, his fingernails would have been sparking — a visual display of just who his mother was. But the collar must have had an inhibitor function … which meant super speed and strength were out of the question too. _Great._

"And just how do you think she'll find you?" the Shi'ar sneered. "Your ship is in pieces. Your communication devices are with it. Even if she knew you were on Chandilar, how would she know where to look before we killed you?"

"Thought you said I was useful."

"Not so useful that I won't personally run you through if you bring the X-Men down on my home," the Shi'ar said, his eyes glittering with malice. "You're not _that _useful to me."

Sying glared up at the man as he sneered down at Sying and then waved a hand. "Think it over," he told the shaking and bleeding boy before he spun on his heel and slammed the door behind him, leaving Sying lying on the floor trying desperately to keep his pain levels under control, because he didn't know what was on the other side of the door, and he was worried if he turned the receptors back on, he might scream. He didn't want to give them the satisfaction.

* * *

Logan had gotten up early, as usual, and headed into the galley to get the coffee going so K could grab a little more sleep. It had been a long night, and she couldn't relax until he'd more or less _made her _— so he knew he'd rather keep her out as long as possible. Especially considering how long they still had to go ahead of them.

He'd barely gotten to the coffee pot when a scent hit him that absolutely should not have been there, and his self-appointed task of working up the coffee was out the window as he turned to follow the scent trail that was so clearly only hours old.

He headed down the halls and to a closed door, though he was already shaking his head to himself when he got to the door — well aware of what he was going to find once he opened it. He bit his cheek to keep from growling and silently opened the door to find Chance sound asleep in bed.

Logan crossed the span of space in three steps and didn't bother waking him up nicely as he grabbed a handful of the kid's shirt and picked him clean off the bed. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Augh!" Chance startled badly before he had fully realized what was going on, wide-eyed and panicked until he managed to say, "I want to help!"

"And what the hell made you think bein' a little stowaway was a good idea?" Logan narrowed his eyes at him. "Does anyone know where you are?"

"No — well — I wasn't planning on — I just — the ship just kind of opened up and—"

"Come on," Logan said, pulling him along. "You're gonna let your dad know where you are. Right now." He didn't take no for an answer at all, and any time Chance even accidentally dragged his feet, Logan pulled him harder — all the way to the bridge.

"What in Plex's name…" Noh said, staring at the sight of the two of them.

"He's gotta let his Dad know exactly what he did — and I'm sure we'll hear it too," Logan said, shoving Chance toward Noh, then openly glaring at the boy with his arms crossed.

Chance looked between the two X-Men for a moment, but if he was going to try to argue his way out, he didn't start nearly in time. Noh had already pulled up the communications — and to make matters worse, when Scott came up on the screen, he looked like he had just been waiting for the call, arms crossed and everything.

"Hi, Dad."

"Chance." Scott looked entirely unamused, and he wasn't changing his expression at all.

Chance shifted slightly and rubbed the back of his neck. "Look, I just… Sying's one of my best friends and I just… want to help," he muttered.

"So you stowed away on a ship without authorization and ensured that the rescue crew has another minor to look out for," Scott said flatly.

"Ah." Chance bit his lip. "That… wasn't the plan… there wasn't really a plan?"

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"I just wanted to … I don't know... talk to the _Marvel _before she took off — and the next thing I know, the whole wall opens up to a room for me, so I just… ran with it?" Chance said, shrugging.

"Without thinking of the consequences," Scott said, shaking his head. "We'll talk about this when you get home. For now, do _exactly _what Logan tells you to do, and I'll hear about it if you don't, got it?"

Chance's eyes went wide as he nodded quickly. "Yes, sir." He didn't really need to hear anything else to know he was in huge trouble when he got home, so when the transmission ended, he let out all his breath in a woosh.

"Stay here and help Noh," Logan said before he turned back to get the coffee for K. Chance was in trouble enough without poking _that _bear too. "You better hope you didn't wake her up," Logan called back over his shoulder.


	9. Getting Desperate

Sying was exhausted. He didn't have anything in him, even though he hadn't left the room in several days. He also hadn't had anything to eat or drink in just as much time, though, and it was getting to the point that he knew it was desperate; he _needed _water at the very least. Food if he could get it.

He was tired all the time and could hardly keep his eyes open, so when he drifted off, he wasn't sure how much time had passed before a hand on his arm woke him up. He peered up at Andri'i blearily for a moment and then let out a breath. "What do you want?" he asked, his tone as annoyed as he could make it when his voice was raw from disuse.

Andri'i smiled at him and brushed back his white hair. "For one thing, I'd like to stop having to come to this filthy room just to see you," she said.

Sying narrowed his eyes at her, but he was too tired to argue the point — especially when he was sure it was fruitless at this point to point out to her that she was the reason he was there in the first place. Instead, he tipped his head back and closed his eyes. "Go away."

"Are you sure you want me to leave?" Andri'i asked with a little smirk. "I brought food."

Sying kept his eyes closed for a long moment as he weighed it out. He _wanted _to tell her to go away, but he also knew that he needed food. And for as much as he said he wanted to be an X-Man, for as much as he spent every day learning how to hone his powers, he didn't want to _die _trying to play hero.

Andri'i got to her feet, and Sying let out a frustrated sigh. "Fine," he said, and she smirked as she sat back down and handed him some food.

He largely ignored Andri'i — as much as he could — as he focused instead on simply giving his body what it needed. He wasn't fully human, so he didn't have to worry about too much, too fast, thankfully — the nanites in his system were making quick use of everything he was giving them. His side still hadn't healed, and the starvation and thirst had to be staved off as well.

But after he had wolfed down some food and water — which was really not enough; his side was still a mess — he couldn't ignore Andri'i, especially for how close she was sitting to him. And when he glanced up at her to tell her to back off, she leaned over and kissed him.

He pushed her back at the shoulders, wide-eyed, and scrambled back as much as he could, though since he wasn't healed yet, that wasn't far. "You've got to be kidding me," he muttered through his teeth.

Andri'i sounded just as annoyed as she leaned back, rolling her eyes. "You're _still _upset?"

"Yes! Obviously!" Sying stared at her. "I'm not ever going to _not _be!"

"Well, you're going to have to get over it sooner or later, because it's not changing anytime soon," Andri'i shot back. "And if you're going to be stupid about it—"

"Andri'i, I'm not going to kiss someone who _turned me over for slavery_."

"I _saved your life_!" she shot back with a glare, her hands in fists. "You _owe _me."

"I don't owe you a _thing_," he said, his eyes narrowed as he mirrored her body language, his own hands in fists and his teeth bared.

"No?" She thrust her chin out. "Maybe you'd rather go to the palace. Or a labor force. I bet you'd last maybe a year or two at most."

"_You're the one who turned me over to your parents!_" he all but hissed at her.

She glared at him angrily as she got to her feet. "Fine. _Fine_. See if I care if you starve to death."

But at that, Sying actually smirked. "You wouldn't be here if your parents didn't want me alive." He held out a hand and gestured with his fingertips for her to give up the rest of the food he knew she had. "You have to listen to them just as much as you want me to."

Andri'i glared at him defiantly for a few long moments before, with a loud and frustrated shout, she tossed a bag to the other side of the room. "Fine. I won't help you then," she snapped. "See how you like having to deal with my parents."

Sying held her glare all the way up until she'd left and then let out a breath as he looked over to the other side of the room. He very carefully pulled himself up and held his breath, closing his eyes. "This is just going to make it worse," he muttered to himself before he unsteadily made his way over to the bag of food, his side protesting the whole way and sounding like a brass band warming up with the way he had things rerouted in his head.

He dropped down by the bag and leaned his head back for a moment to catch his breath before he wolfed down everything that was left — in case they changed their minds and came back to remove it.

* * *

It had taken a while to get out to where Sying's beacon had been, simply because he had been so far away from Earth when he was attacked, but, at last, but when the _Marvel _finally got to the coordinates that the beacon had emitted, they were surprised to find as much _debris _as they did.

The constant thrum of energy that usually came from the _Marvel _dwindled off until it was barely there as Noh scanned the debris, his expression falling fast.

"She's gone," Noh said softly, a sort of strain to his voice as even the lights in the _Marvel _seemed to dim. "Utterly destroyed."

"What about Sying?" Chance asked quietly.

"We wait to see who was in the area from the Guardians," Logan said from behind both of them as he and K stepped onto the bridge. "If he was dead, he'd be here."

"That is not all that comforting," Chance muttered.

"Not what I'm worried about right now," Logan replied. "We're here to find the kid. So we're gonna do that first. If you didn't want to deal with this, you should have stayed in Westchester."

"Not all of the debris is from the _Wonder_," Noh said, looking up at the two of them. "There are Shi'ar signatures here too."

"So … what do Peterquill's friends have to say?" K asked, walking up to rest a hand on Noh's arm. "Can they confirm it so we can go raze a species? Because I'm game."

"Jubilee is calling them right now." Noh looked up at K with almost a smirk. "The Shi'ar Empire is big enough that it would take even you and I a few days to raze it, and I'd prefer to start where Sying is."

"They're living on borrowed time. And I'm fine with explosives to shorten up the party."

"We've got a few places we can look," Jubilee said as she joined the group. "There isn't much to go on after the ships went back to the Empire, but… I gave the Guardians the name of the girl that Sying rescued."

"And?" Noh asked.

"It's a pretty common name," Jubilee admitted. "It means 'bloodshed.'"

"That," Noh said with a glare, "is not surprising."

"So she's probably a pushover," K reasoned with a smirk. "My given name is a flower."

"Likely," Noh agreed.

Jubilee shook her head at both of them before she took a deep breath. "So. There's a few Shi'ar with that name in some of the outer colonies… a couple deeper in, and three or four on Chandilar itself."

"So, let's start there and split the skulls of whoever answers to it," K replied.

"Seems like a good plan," Noh agreed before he reached over to tap the _Marvel _in the center of the console. "And on the way, please, try to think encouraging thoughts. She's in mourning."

"Poor lamb," K said. "What kind of encouragement does she need?"

Noh smirked her way. "From you, I'm sure your plans for those who crossed my son will suffice. Though some more positive thoughts will help."

"I am _positive_ that we'll find the boy and bring him back safely," K told him. "There is no other option that I'm going to even entertain."

"I can help with that part," Chance said. "The… positive thoughts." He glanced up at Noh and shrugged. "I think that's why the _Marvel _wanted me to come anyway. I told her to fly fast, and she invited me on."

"She wanted a Sweet Summers. How cute," K said, shaking her head. "Come with me, sweet baby face. Let the grownups get a plan."

"I'm not…" Chance frowned at her. "I can help."

"Yes. With me." She didn't wait to hear another argument before she put her arm around his shoulders and took him toward the ship's archives and away from where the others were plotting. "I want you to get into a different mindset, Chance. Don't try to be what they are. You've learned a lot from this ship, but you need to know its limits so you can _push them _when the time comes."

Chance's eyebrows shot up, but he was nodding along. "Alright."

"Logan and I have talked it over. If this goes south the way it's looking like it wants to go, we're going to need a solid pilot, and that means you're going to need to know _everything _about her." She gestured to the screens. "So get to work. You need to know not just what the _Marvel _can do, but you will have to have a solid handle on the area we're headed into as well."

Chance tried not to smile too widely at getting an assignment like that — especially a piloting one — before he nodded. "Not a problem," he assured her.

"Oh, sweetheart. You say that now." She kissed his cheek as the screens came to life and outlined what exactly he had ahead of him, with plenty of maps as well as some solid history on the area and information on Shi'ar tactical formations...

"You figured out a way to give me homework all the way out here," Chance couldn't help but tease.

"No," K said, shaking her head. "No … this is mandatory just to hang out here. I'm going to be fueling up the ship in my own way coming up with homework for you. _Logan too_."

Chance's eyes went a bit wider at that, and he bit his lip as he sat down at the seat to look over the information. "I… am gonna be fifty before I get outta trouble on this one," he muttered.

"With good behavior," she called out from the doorway on her way out.

* * *

It hadn't escaped Scott's notice that Elin had been brimming with nerves over the possibility of stepping in for her parents — and that was on top of the nerves she had hoping Sying was alright which had her positively miserable and trying not to show it.

So when Scott got a call about a mutant in need, he didn't hesitate to ask Elin to come with him.

"Do you need a tracker?" Elin asked, not questioning him but looking for information as she fell into step with him. After all, he'd specifically told her that he wanted her on hand to step in for her parents in those cases.

Scott shook his head. "No, but I think it's about time you had your first pickup mission on the team, don't you?"

Elin pressed her lips together. "Okay," she said in a tone that said she was surprised by the attention.

Scott stopped and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I know you've got this, Elin. You're ready. I wouldn't have let you onto the team if I didn't think you were."

"I know."

Scott let out a breath. He was honestly hoping that having a successful mission under her belt would help Elin, but he also knew that she was thirteen years old and dealing with five hundred different emotions at once. So he simply nodded as the two of them split up to get changed for the upcoming mission.

When Elin met up with him again, Scott couldn't hide his smile. She looked _so _much like her parents when she put on the businesslike expression — the one she was wearing now as she looked up at him.

"Where to?" she asked.

"Not far," he promised. "Mountains in Kentucky — sorry, no international flight this time."

"Oh darn."

Scott chuckled and put his arm around Elin as they hit the hangar. "Come be my copilot," he said — not just because he wanted Elin to feel like she was really _part _of the team and not a mere passenger but because he knew that Sying and Chance had focused more on piloting than Elin had, and he wanted to give her the chance to get in some flight time.

For the most part, he simply watched to see what Elin did, though he couldn't stop himself from giving her a few tips and pointers — until she gave him a look that was worthy of her father.

Scott chuckled and held up his hands. "Yes, I know. Kate gives me the same look. I'm attached to the bird, alright?"

"I know that," Elin said. "But … Dad has been teaching me to fly for a while, too." She paused and then turned his way. "You know he only does things you don't like when you're _with him _so he can tweak you, right?"

Scott shook his head when he heard it. "Doesn't surprise me," he said dryly.

As the blackbird circled around Scott's chosen landing site, Elin couldn't help but begin to feel a little anxious. She'd always kind of expected to go on her first mission with Mom or Dad … not that she had any problems going with Scott. He was practically her uncle, after all. It _sounded _like a basic kind of mission — simple save the mutant parameters and all — but it was complicated with the fact that Elin was clearly distracted, worrying about her parents and Sying…

"They key here is diplomacy," Scott was saying. "I'll handle this one unless we have some extreme circumstances—"

"What qualifies as extreme?"

Scott smiled mildly. "If we're attacked and I need to cover you, or, more likely, if they need a younger person to talk to them."

"That's an issue?"

"Sometimes," Scott said, thinking of the handful or so of people that had reacted negatively to him based on his _past_. They were few and far between at this point, but Cerebro hadn't been able to nail down if this pick up was for an adult or a teen — or even if it was a boy or girl. All he knew was that this person was in hostile surroundings with tempers rising and that their talent was as a telepath.

Elin nodded as the two of them picked up the pace — not that they had to look too hard when even Scott, without enhanced hearing, could hear the crowd as they got closer. That on its own had her paying closer attention — not necessarily to what was being said, but to the body language of those nearest to them. And … keeping half an eye on Scott, too. The last thing she wanted to see happen was something stupid befalling _him _on their first mission.

Scott saw the unconscious move and recognized it, but he didn't say anything. He'd seen both hof her parents doing the same thing before and knew she was gearing out to look out for him. And since he planned to do the same thing for her, he couldn't exactly say anything.

When they did find the mystery telepath, they somehow weren't surprised to find that she had already attracted a crowd. What _was _surprising was the fact that she seemed to be trying to take the crowd on, hiding inside her house but shouting out the window at them.

"It's not my fault you all have issues you don't want me spilling!"

Scott shook his head when he heard it. An unapologetic telepath at the start of her powers was going to be a handful on her own, let alone dealing with the crowd. "This should be fun," he muttered.

"I thought that was standard," Elin said quietly. "The _fun _part."

"Oh, always," Scott said dryly. He looked around the place and then nodded to himself. "See if you can sneak up on him. She won't hear you coming."

"Okay, that shouldn't be a problem," Elin said, then took a moment to look at the crowd and the layout of the area before she headed off around the gathered crowd.

For Scott's part, the issue was fairly straightforward — and depressingly familiar. He'd been breaking up angry mobs since he was a teenager, to varied success, though he almost had to laugh when one of the angry men in the group snapped at him, "How would _you _like it if someone was in your head pawing through your private thoughts?"

"Been there. Didn't try to kill her, either," Scott said without missing a beat. "Now come on, break it up."

Meanwhile, Elin slipped though the back door — after she reached through the already broken window to unlock it. She wasn't terribly surprised to find that there was a rock on the floor — obviously the cause of the broken window. Still, she stayed as quiet as she could as she made her way through the house. The crowd was loud enough to equate to a dull roar inside, and Elin had to take a moment to listen for where their mutant rescue was. The whole house was, of course, saturated with scents — and not all of them the same — but it seemed to Elin like there was only one person home at the time.

So, she made her way up the stairs slowly — careful not to allow any of the stairs to creak — walking at the very edge of the steps next to the wall. At the top of the stairs, she started down the hall to where she had thought their mutant in trouble had last been spotted, and when she found the right bedroom, she leaned in the doorway and watched for a long moment.

"What exactly is it you're trying to do here?" Elin asked with her arms crossed over her chest.

The telepath startled and turned to face Elin. "How did you do that?" she demanded.

"What? Walk up the stairs? Like anyone else." Elin took a few steps closer. "So — what are you trying to do here? You have them whipped up into a mob. _Why_?"

"Hey, I overheard a few self-involved _idiots _thinking about how they'd gone after a drunk _girl _last night and it's not _my _fault the police don't accept 'because I heard it in their heads' as tangible evidence, okay? They have it coming."

Elin frowned at that. "Yeah, okay, I can understand that … but … is that the best you can come up with? Just … tell them that they're jerks? Pretty sure they know that already."

"I could probably get more concentrated about it if I had a better handle on things," the telepath replied. "But right now? Yeah? Let them know they're stupid and everyone knows it — and don't back down when they get mad about it. Pretty much the plan."

"That's a very dumb plan," Elin said. "Especially since they're all here at your door trying to get to you." She kicked herself out of the door and started toward her. "You do know that you're supposed to keep it to yourself right? Because … where I'm standing? Someone just invading your head can be just as bad as the creeps that went after the drunk girl."

"I think of it more like karma," the telepath argued.

"No, it's really a form of rape," Elin said. "Totally skeezy."

The telepath narrowed her eyes. "It is _not_," she argued. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"No control over yourself … just like those creepy frat boys." Elin narrowed her eyes. "You're trying to _force _your way into my head right now. Aren't you?"

The telepath blinked and held up her hands. "No," she lied.

Elin's reaction was exactly like her father's when lied to — all deep and throaty and more than enough to tip Scott off to the fact that the telepath was lying. Not that it was hard to tell. Still, he stepped between the two girls before things could get any worse.

"You," he said, pointing at the telepath, "need to learn control. You're going to get in trouble with that attitude."

"I—"

"No." Scott cut her off before she could say anything. "I know more than anyone how important boundaries are for telepaths. So you can either keep living with the mobs that will crop up from your behavior — and deal with the consequences from my friend here, who doesn't take well to liars — or you can allow my daughter to teach you control."

The telepath glared, but when she realized that Elin was looking at her like she was itching to teach her a lesson, she finally relented. "Fine," she said.

"Good," Scott replied, putting a hand on Elin's shoulder — though before they left, he was sure to whisper just softly enough only she could hear it, "Good work."

"You did all the talking," she pointed out.

"No," Scott said with a warm smile, shaking his head. "You set up the argument. I just had a daughter to throw in as a finishing touch."

Elin gave Scott a look that clearly said she thought he was full of it, but he simply held her gaze — at least until the telepath tried to get snippy, and then he stepped back and let Elin tell the girl exactly how it was going to be.

* * *

This time, when someone came to visit Sying, there was no gentle hand on his arm like there had been with Andri'i. Instead, he let out a cry of both surprise and pain when the collar went off to wake him up, the high-pitched whine insistent enough to have him gasping within seconds — and very definitely awake.

The whine hadn't even died off before he was dragged to his feet, and he didn't get much time to get his bearings before there was a blade in his face, and Andri'i's mother was on the other end of it.

He was all but holding his breath, yet he forced his gaze to the Shi'ar woman in front of him, though that just had her narrowing her eyes.

"Don't give me reason to go against my husband's wishes," she warned, her gaze murderous.

"You're going to have to be more specific, because all I've got so far is 'here, let's make you miserable and then maybe kill you,'" Sying shot back, his temper flaring.

The woman's eyes narrowed even further before, in one quick motion, she left a long, thin cut over his cheekbone and then let her blade drift downward. "I wonder how interested Andri'i would be…" She took a step forward, and Sying instinctively stepped back, almost smacking into the guard behind him. She smirked at his reaction but kept her blade pointed at waist level as she let out a disinterested "hmm."

With that, she motioned for Sying to follow her, and the guard behind him let go of Sying's arm. But while she started to move, Sying wasn't about to do anything of the sort, still livid and sure that whatever it was these people had planned, he didn't want _any _part in it.

Andri'i's mother sighed in annoyance and waved at the guard, who moved to grab Sying's arm again — but he was through being manhandled. He sidestepped the move and kicked the guard in the back of the knee, sending him stumbling before he spun to face the Shi'ar woman in front of him, teeth bared.

He didn't get to take another step, though, before that same insistent frequency dropped him to his knees. He couldn't even hear what Andri'i's mother was saying over the sound of it, though the fact that he felt shortly thereafter the cold metal of her blade just underneath his chin forcing him to look up at her made the threat pretty clear.

He couldn't do a thing to fight back as the guard picked him up by his still-shaking arms. The noise didn't stop, either, and he was barely conscious of anything but the sound and his own splintering skin before he felt his knees hit the floor again and finally, _finally_, the noise let up.

He blinked blearily around himself, trying to assess his situation. At first, he thought he might have been locked up somewhere less accommodating than his previous cell - with bars and a stench of, well, everything that came with being locked up. But it finally clicked for him that he wasn't _behind _the bars when he saw the blue-skinned Kree woman on the other side of them.

He had hardly registered that before the guard that had dragged him down there grabbed his hair to turn his head so he was sure to have Sying's attention. "You clean this, and you eat," the man said, keeping it exceedingly simple as he gestured to the dungeons around them. "You do anything else — you speak to anyone or try to leave — and you don't."

Sying glared at the man all the way up until he left and then stuck his tongue out at the door, kicking aside the scrub brushes that had been left for him. "Yeah, not doing that," he muttered to himself before, instead, he made his way over to the cell with the Kree woman in it. "_You okay_?" he asked quietly, in Kree.

The woman stared at him for a moment, obviously shocked that he was disobeying orders and probably confused by Sying's accent (which he'd picked up from his dad) before she shook her head lightly. "_No_."

"_Yeah, that was a dumb question, sorry,_" he said with a sheepish smile. "_I'm Sying._"

"_Anola-Varr._"

Sying's small, encouraging smile dropped instantly, and he stared at the woman on the other side of the bars. "_What_?"

"_You can call me Anola if you wish,_" the woman said, not seeming to understand why he was so taken off-guard by her name.

His dad had told him that his family — or this universe's version of them — was on Hala, but Sying had never met them. He'd always pictured his dad's parents as sort of… well, more like K and Logan, really. But this woman was tall and incredibly thin, with brilliant blue skin and intelligent eyes.

And while staring at his own long-dead grandmother was a whole experience unto itself, there was also the tactical part of his mind buzzing with another piece of information: that the Shi'ar wouldn't have let them meet if they didn't want them to.

Sying knew that his dad had purposefully distanced himself from his alternate parents, but the Shi'ar didn't know that. They might not have even known how Noh and Anola were related, just that they were.

Which meant that Sying wasn't their _only _option to get to Noh. The Shi'ar must have allowed them to meet to tell Sying they would kill him without losing their strategic hold over his father. It was a warning shot.

A terrible, cruel warning shot.

"_Have you seen any other young Kree?" _Anola asked after a long period of silence, and Sying swallowed, realizing that he had been staring.

He shook his head and cleared his throat. "_I haven't seen anyone but Shi'ar and you since I got here."_

"_When did you get here?"_

"_I'm not sure. Probably a couple weeks by now,_" Sying admitted.

Anola frowned at that, and Sying could see the honest terror and pain in her gaze as she tried to hold it together. "_We only arrived a few days ago."_

"_Hey." _Sying rushed over to where she was and reached through the bars to grab hold of her hand. "_Maybe I can look out for whoever came with you. What do they look like?"_

Anola took a deep, shuddering breath as she seemed to stare at Sying more intently than before. "_My son, Kel, and my daughter, Ula." _She tipped her head to the side. "_Kel looks a lot like you _— _but blue-skinned and several years younger. Ula…" _She let out a gasp and tried to get herself back under control, and Sying frowned harder, holding onto her hand and knowing that this just wasn't good, no matter how he looked at it. "_I'm sure they have taken her to be force-grown. She's so small; they have no use for her._"

Sying frowned and bit back the comment he knew he could make — that there was, in fact, a use for her. If she was that little, he knew his dad … he knew _any _of the X-Men wouldn't hesitate to do what it took to keep her safe, even to their own detriment.

"_I'll find her,_" Sying promised.

Anola leaned her head against the bars and closed her eyes. "_Thank you."_

Sying gave her hand another quick squeeze and then rearranged the way that he was sitting so that he could settle in for a good, long while, as long as Anola needed him to be there. He had no intention of going along with the Shi'ar orders anyway, so he might as well help his sort-of-grandmother.

Of course, that meant that when a guard arrived dragging a boy who looked like he was maybe a couple years younger than Melody and Celeste behind him, it was obvious to the guy that Sying hadn't worked for one second — and that he'd been talking to Anola.

The boy was thin and battered and didn't look up after the guard tossed him into a cell on the far side of the dungeon — but it was clear he was at least alive and conscious. And from the sound that Anola made when the boy arrived, Sying knew this had to be Kel.

_Probably would have been named 'Noh' if Dad wasn't a 'traitor' at the time… _Sying thought to himself, though he didn't get to see the boy properly before there was a guard in his face.

The guard yanked him backward and away from Anola's cell and backhanded him hard enough to send him stumbling several steps. "Kree filth," he sneered at Sying.

"Goldfish brain," Sying practically sang back, bending backward nearly flat when the guard took another swing before he popped up again with almost a smirk on.

That only enraged the guard, of course, who rushed at Sying. He wasn't nearly as trained as Sying was, though, and it was almost too easy for Sying to duck the huge guy. He absolutely could have kept it up all day, too, if the guard didn't have a control for the collar.

Down he went as soon as the noise started, swearing in every language he knew through his teeth, though the guard didn't bother to keep up with extended sound punishment. He only wanted to send Sying down so he could pick the young man up and pound him several times, hard.

While Sying was doubled over, the guard tossed him into the wall and twisted his arms behind him, but the big guy paused when there was no resulting scream — even after he went so far as to break Sying's wrist.

"That's not going to work on him."

Both Sying and the guard glanced up to see Andri'i leaning against the doorway, looking smug. "He and his father can turn off their pain receptors. You can hit him all you want, and he won't scream."

The guard looked furiously down at Sying as if he had been robbed of his greatest pleasure — which, really, he sort of had — and Sying just smirked right back, pouring in as much smugness as he could manage.

"That's what the collar is for, you imbecile," Andri'i continued. "It overwhelms him. It's not as fun for you, I know, but it's what works."

Sying's smirk fell in time with the one that was rising on the guard's face. A second later, he found himself on the ground again, this time with the frequency turned up much higher so that the criss-cross pattern on his neck spread over his torso and arms within seconds.

The clearly-satisfied guard regarded Sying for just a moment before he kicked him with the toe of his boot and then sneered down and moved on, leaving the little half-Kree still gasping on the floor for a long, _long_ time after that.


	10. Between A Rock And A Hard Place

It was a mark of how worn down Sying was that he didn't hear the Shi'ar guard approaching until the guy was nearly on top of him. He had passed out on the floor of the dungeon, and they had left him there, which really hadn't done him any favors when his body was already sore and bruised from the abuse it had taken in the past weeks.

Anola and Kel were asleep in their respective cells, too, so they hadn't seen the guard to give him any warning either. So his wake-up call that morning was more or less a sucker punch as the guard grabbed him by his dirty shirt with one hand and with the other hooked something to the collar around his neck.

Of course, every time someone touched that stupid thing, it was set to go off, so Sying was disoriented, gasping, and completely unable to fight against whatever was going on.

The guard jerked Sying to his feet and then released his hold on his shirt. The sound was just starting to let up so that Sying could try to get a hold of himself when the guard gave a mighty jerk, and Sying very nearly stumbled over, his head and neck and shoulders moving forward with the pull of the chain.

His instinct was to try to pull back against the collar, to reach up and put distance between his neck and the thing around it, but he managed not to act on it, knowing that would just make it worse. There was a logical part of his mind that realized this was a response to his constant fighting — they could direct him without getting close to him — but that wasn't helping the feeling of anger and helplessness as he simply couldn't help but stumble behind the guard.

_Get some slack_, he thought to himself when his brain finally started to kick in after the rude awakening and everything that had come with it, and so he tried to pick up his pace so that he wasn't being _pulled _everywhere. But he was distracted when he heard the clack of an iron door behind him and looked back to see that Kel was getting the same rough awakening — though he was being pulled by his arms instead of on a chain, since he was small enough that the Shi'ar didn't consider him much of a threat.

Sying opened his mouth to say something — though he wasn't sure if it would be a reassurance to Kel or some kind of invective against the Shi'ar; it was honestly a toss-up at this point — but whatever he was going to say was cut off with a strangled sound when the guard yanked the end of the chain he was holding hard enough to send Sying stumbling, barely catching himself by throwing his arms out before he would have hit the floor.

It took him a few tries to get his feet back underneath him again, because with the jerk at the other end of the chain, every time he would more or less get to his feet, there was another hard tug, and he would stumble all over again, falling before he could get settled enough to get any slack like he had tried to do before.

Sying was red with fury by the time they got to wherever it was the guard was dragging him, though that quickly transitioned to horror when they came to a stop and he saw a little blue-skinned Kree girl, _maybe _Malin's age, her eyes wide with terror and her hands tied in front of her.

Sying heard a _terrible_ sound behind him and turned in time to see the look on Kel's face that confirmed it: this was Anola's daughter. Or… Sying's aunt in a different universe. That was still a little confusing, he had to admit, but either way, the family resemblance was unmistakable. Sying felt his hands balling into fists before he had even made the decision to rush forward to the little girl, not even thinking about the consequences until not only did the guard pull on his collar but he pulled hard enough to bring Sying close to plant a fist in his stomach, forcing the air out of his lungs and stopping him in his tracks.

"Still fighting my guards, I see," Andri'i's father said, the last to enter the room as he strolled in with a smug sort of look on his face that had Sying's blood boiling all over again.

"I'm not going to just roll over for you," Sying shot back.

Andri'i's father narrowed his eyes and waved at the big guard who had the little girl — Ula, her mother had called her. The big guy grabbed hold of Ula-

"Wait!" Sying called at the same time Kel called out a '_please_' in Kree, terror evident in the younger boy's voice.

Andri'i's father smirked. "You've made it clear that no amount of punishment will stop your insolence and willful disobedience," he said simply. "At least, no punishment to _you_."

Sying's eyes widened, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kel looking at him in pure horror as he realized what was going on. He felt sick as he looked between the Shi'ar and the terrified little girl in the center of the room. "Don't…"

But Andri'i's father just laughed, making another motion to the man holding Ula—

"_Wait_!" Sying felt the word torn from the very back of his throat and could hear the note of desperation ringing in it. He knew he was playing right in their hands, but there was _no way _he was going to stand by and let them take out their anger at _him _on this little girl. No. Way.

The Shi'ar paused, looking incredibly pleased with themselves. But they didn't say anything. They were going to make Sying offer himself.

"Don't… don't do that," he said, almost numbly. "I won't fight you."

Andri'i's father looked overly pleased with himself as he watched Sying hang his head. Then, he motioned for the guard to pick Ula up again, drawing back his hand—

"_What are you doing?_" Sying gasped.

Andri'i's father simply smirked at him. "Your future obedience is one thing, but the fact of the matter is: you defied your orders, and there are consequences to your actions."

"No!" Sying tried to scramble forward but reached the end of the length the chain at his collar would allow him to go. "Please!" The little girl's terrified sobs were echoing in Sying's ears as he felt his throat drying up so that it was hard to speak. "No, it's my fault ... please…" He sank down to his knees. "It's my fault. Please. I'll… I swear, I won't use any tricks. I won't turn off any receptors. Punish me. Just… leave her alone."

Finally, Andri'i's father looked triumphant, and after a quick motion from him, Ula was released to run to her brother, sobbing and terrified. Sying didn't fight the Shi'ar who pulled him to his feet and started to drag him off, either, his gaze looked on the brother and sister as they had their brief reunion before they, too, were dragged off.

His heart was pounding in his ears a moment before the guard made it a point to test Sying's word, grabbing him by his broken wrist to yank his arm behind him — but Sying wasn't about to force these guys into a repeat performance. He turned the pain receptors back on, crying out when the broken bones twisted before the guard let out a satisfied sort of huff and threw him to the ground.

Sying tried to distance himself from what he knew was coming, but he realized to his horror that he didn't know how to do that without turning it _off_. So he just closed his eyes and held his breath and wondered almost hysterically how long it would be before they let him eat and heal...

* * *

Sying was still crumpled on the floor when he heard footsteps coming his way. He didn't know if he was in for more torture or if someone had finally arrived to take him to a cell, and he didn't have the energy to even pick up his head to find out. He hadn't been hurt this badly in his life, and with no relief from his neural diversionary tactics, he couldn't stop whimpering.

Someone crouched down and put a hand on his back, and he winced instinctively — but no one followed it up with a snide remark or a backhand. Instead, there was only silence until, finally, he heard Andri'i say, "I'm not going to carry you. You can turn your trick back on so I can move you."

Sying barely glanced up at Andri'i, but when he saw that she was alone, he narrowed his eyes. "I don't… don't trust you," he breathed out, struggling to get the words through his teeth when everything _hurt_.

"I got permission," Andri'i swore, one hand held up in the sign of an oath. "You're cluttering up the floor. I'm supposed to move you, and they don't care how. And it's easier for me if you walk."

Sying probably would have argued more if he hadn't been so badly hurt. But the truth was that he couldn't pass up the chance for relief, even if it was only temporary. The short walk to wherever the Shi'ar were planning to keep him would be his only chance to get a hold of himself. He _needed _it.

He wasn't even paying attention to the twists and turns of the hallway by the time Andri'i led him to a door. He didn't even look to see where they were. By that point, he had progressed beyond simply turning the pain off to turning _everything _off. His feet were moving of their own accord, but he simply wasn't _home_.

The shutdown wasn't even a neural diversion … not in the usual sense, anyway. Sying really had meant to shut down pain, and that was the only path he was trained to shut down. But once he had relief, his mind kept going. It was a purely defensive tactic in the face of that much abuse: he was retreating into himself without realizing it, and his training only hastened the change.

By the time Sying followed Andri'i's command to sit down, he was so far gone, he was only functioning in survival mode. And Andri'i could tell… and started smiling sadistically when she saw it.

* * *

Scott and Elin hadn't gotten back from dropping the pushy telepath off with Rachel for some major attitude adjustments when they got the call notifying them that the team was responding to a rally-turned-sideways not far from their position.

Scott turned to look at Elin after he'd acknowledged the intel. "Have you got one more in you?"

"Kind of part of the job, isn't it?" Elin pointed out, looking remarkably like her mother whenever a new mission presented itself.

Scott couldn't help but smile, but he still felt like he needed to give her the option of taking a break, too. "You're still fresh to the team. There's nothing wrong with letting someone else take the call if you need the break."

"Do you?" Elin asked, her expression so piercing and the question so direct that it set Scott back a step. She really was so much like her parents.

"Fair enough," Scott said. "I just wanted to give you the reminder."

Elin shook her head and her hands out. "You asked me to fill in for my parents, didn't you?" she pointed out, sounding deadly serious. "Let's do it."

Scott frowned and then reached out to rest his hand on her arm. "I'm not comparing, Elin," he promised gently. "You're doing better than I could ask for, especially when you're still so new. You're _more _than capable. Your parents trained you well, and it shows. But I'm not comparing or pushing."

"I know," Elin said. "It wouldn't work if you did, anyway. I know I have a long way to go before I'm anywhere near their level."

Scott gave her arm a light squeeze. "Maybe," he conceded. "But you're already proving yourself, Elin. Really."

Elin raised an eyebrow but didn't respond except to say, "So, what are the coordinates?"

Scott smirked and showed them to her on his comm. _Just like her parents, _he thought, again.


	11. The Fall of Chandilar

After a few weeks carrying around a ship filled with angry, worried people — not to mention the stress of losing the _Wonder _— the _Marvel _was starting to slow down, though that wasn't exactly helping matters.

Noh had been having an argument with his ship in the engine room for about the last hour, focused on trying to get her to move faster, since that was the only thing he felt he could _do_, the only forward motion that he felt he could get toward finding his son.

"I know you want to find him too, so stop dragging your feet," Noh hissed at the engine, which let out an annoyed hum in response. "Don't take that tone with me."

Chance had peeked into the engine room to see if there was anything he could do to help, but when he saw the argument Noh was having with the ship, he had started to backtrack — until he noticed the indicator light that meant they were being hailed.

Noh saw it at about the same time and crawled out from underneath the engine to take a look at it, frowning when he recognized the frequency as a Shi'ar one. He had just turned to leave the engine room when he saw Chance, and he gestured with both hands. "Go get the others. There is no reason for the Shi'ar to be calling my personal ship unless they are the cause of this trouble."

Chance ran off to go do just that, looking wide-eyed as Noh headed back to the bridge, not answering the hail until he was with the others so that he wouldn't have to repeat the message — though he set the ship to record it all the same so that they could get any details that they needed.

When he answered the hail, he wasn't surprised to see a pair of Imperial Shi'ar on the screen. "Ambassador Varr," the Shi'ar sneered.

Noh's lip was already curled back. "I'd address you by your given names, but you clearly aren't important enough for me to have learned them."

"He _means _that you haven't held your position long enough for the Kree to be familiar with your names," Jubilee cut in, elbowing him in the ribs as she joined him.

"I know exactly what he meant," the Shi'ar replied. "And the feeling is entirely mutual. In fact, we would not be bothering to stoop to contact you if we hadn't found something you seem to have misplaced."

"Go on," Jubilee said, doing her best not to look too anxious or too eager.

The Shi'ar simply smirked and stepped slightly back so that the X-Men could see behind him. And there, standing just at the edge of the room, was Sying. He didn't look up at the camera, even though they knew he had to have heard their voices, but besides the metal collar around his neck, it didn't look like he was restrained. He looked battered and worn, but no one was holding him back, either. Still, he looked like he'd just… given up. And that was _not _what Jubilee or Noh had hoped to see, let alone K or Logan or even Chance.

The Shi'ar stepped back in front of the camera. "I wonder, Ambassador, if you will hold your loyalty to the Empire over your loyalty to your son."

Noh looked positively livid. "Speak directly and not in shadows. What do you want?"

"Information," the Shi'ar said simply. "You can buy his life — if you give us deployment patterns, codes."

Noh glared at the screen. "You want me to give you my world for the center of my life," he said.

"Only in person," Jubilee replied, her tone a lot harder than Noh had expected to hear from her when their son was on the screen in the state he was in. "To be traded at the same time. Clearly, you can't be trusted for any other transaction."

"You misunderstand," the Shi'ar said with a smirk. "I am offering his life, not his freedom."

Noh's glare only deepened. "You're not keeping him."

"And I need to have confirmation that he's alive," Jubilee said with some serious heat. "In person. No. Other. Option."

"You just saw for yourself," the Shi'ar said.

"And no one will give you anything over a feed," Jubilee shot back. "In person."

The Shi'ar seemed to consider this for a long moment before he nodded. "If you're so determined to come to Chandilar, then so be it."

"Send the coordinates of where we should meet you," Jubilee said coldly.

"We'll expect you there in three of your days," the Shi'ar said before he sent off the coordinates in the message and cut it off.

Jubilee was shaking and to the point of tears as she turned toward Noh. "I know my way around Chandilar."

"Good. And I know my way through Shi'ar."

Jubilee shook her head. "You don't understand," she said. "There is a massive underground Kree resistance to the royals. I know them. One of them could pass for my sister if she's still alive."

"All this time, and you still find ways to surprise me," Noh said with almost a smile. "Good. Then you can use those routes." He took a deep breath. "And I will go to the coordinates they sent — or they will suspect something."

"Maybe we should send Wolvie and K to Shym'r to rally the troops, and I'll go with you," Jubilee said, knowing that, as composed as Noh liked to think he was, he didn't _think _straight when he was emotionally compromised. And he was.

Noh nodded. "Perhaps they can find Sying before the appointed meeting," he said before he stepped forward and pulled Jubilee into a long hug. "I swear to you, if I have to go through every single Imperial Shi'ar myself, we'll get him back."

At the other end of the room, once Sying had been visible on the screen, Logan had pulled K over to him, held her tightly, and covered her mouth, reminding her that the Shi'ar had no idea they were on board, and that he intended to keep it that way right down to the hand off. But once Jubilee and Noh had started strategizing, K spoke up again.

"What have you got in mind, kids?" she asked.

"Jubilee and I will go to the meeting place — which I am sure is a trap," Noh told them matter-of-factly.

"Which is too bad for them, because I'm gonna blow 'em up so bad their ancestors are going to feel it," Jubilee muttered.

Noh squeezed her hand before he turned back to K. "I'm sure we can handle it. But as for you…." He let out a breath. "If we cannot get Sying on our own, I would ask you to follow him — to make sure he doesn't disappear again."

"I will personally wipe out this entire species if they harm him further," K swore with a growl.

"What can I do?" Chance asked, looking pale. He had known Sying was in trouble, but it was one thing to know that and another to see one of his best friends in the world so… beaten down.

Logan turned his way with a definite scowl on his face. "You can stay here. Guard the ship and blow up anyone that isn't supposed to get near it."

Chance looked for a moment like he might argue — he wanted to be able to help more substantially — but he let out a breath and backed down, knowing that arguing would only mean he would _never _get to help. "Alright. I'll… keep the engines running I guess."

"Try doing something to charge them up so we can zip the hell outta here when we come back," K suggested.

"And I'll get the med bay set up," Chance offered, grasping as the responsibility. "The _Marvel _will show me which drawers have what we need."

"You sure your little friend is even alive?" Logan asked as he turned toward Jubilee. "That's a long time to deal with Shi'ar."

"You'll know her when you see her," Jubilee promised. "Lilandra brought her back when she tried to fix the whole stupid Shi'ar thing. She was supposed to help them make things less miserable on Hala."

"Considering how things went recently…" Noh shook his head.

"Well, that was a long time ago," Jubilee admitted. "But Shym'r was clever. And she was always surrounded by much bigger, stronger Kree. She's still alive, I'm sure of it."

"And if she is not, our friends will still be able to find Sying," Noh said, gesturing to Logan and K.

"Oh sure," Jubilee said, nodding. "K knows how to sweet-talk aliens into getting what she wants."

"By hook or by crook," K agreed.

* * *

By the time Jubilee and Noh got to the spot the Shi'ar had sent them coordinates to, both of them were fit to be tied. Knowing that Sying had been with the Shi'ar this whole time, they were both anxious to get him _out _of there.

They made sure to drop Logan and K off elsewhere on Chandilar before going to the coordinates, leaving Chance with the ship, cloaked and as out of view as possible, though since the Shi'ar were on the lookout for their ship, Chance was swearing up and down that he'd shoot anyone who found the _Marvel_.

They could already see a few Imperial Shi'ar surrounding the building where they were supposed to meet the Shi'ar holding Sying, and the very tips of Jubilee's fingernails were sparking the closer they got to the door as she muttered under her breath about incredibly stupid life choices.

When they recognized the Shi'ar who approached them as one of the two who had been on the message, Noh let out a hiss that was too low for anyone else to hear, completely instinctively, though it became far more audible when the Shi'ar's partner brought out Sying.

It was clearer to see in person that he was hurting, and that he hadn't really been eating. If he had been, he would have been fully healed, but there were scars on his face and arms that they could see — and more, they were sure, that they couldn't see — and he was incredibly quiet as one of the Shi'ar led him in by the neck.

"You can see for yourself he's still living," the Shi'ar said.

Noh was impressed by the coldly angry expression Jubilee was keeping up toward the Shi'ar even though he could feel her hand on his arm and knew she was a step away from losing it — not that he would stop her.

"And as for your end of the bargain…" The Shi'ar looked at Noh pointedly.

Noh didn't take his gaze off of Sying as he pulled a hologram from his pocket dimension and tossed it toward the Shi'ar. "As requested," he said shortly.

The Shi'ar smirked as he looked over the information. "You'll stay here until this is verified," he told the two of them when he finally did look up and then made a motion to the Shi'ar holding Sying to leave with him.

Noh bared his teeth and would have charged the Shi'ar, but he caught a very quiet "dad" that stopped him in his tracks as he met Sying's gaze.

"_You can't do that, Dad,"_ Sying said, in Kree, and so quietly that only the two of them could hear their conversation. "_I'm not the only one they've got... _" But before he could tell Noh who else was on the line, the guard holding him dragged him off, leaving Jubilee and Noh with his captors looking overly pleased with themselves.

For a moment, Noh stared at the door that had closed behind Sying before he spun to face the Shi'ar. "You cannot expect me to trust you with him," Noh said. "It's clear to see you have mistreated him—"

"We've only guaranteed his life, nothing more," the Shi'ar said easily. "And he will stay here until either Hala is under our control again or you become no longer useful as a source of information for us."

Jubilee and Noh were both glaring at the Shi'ar when they heard it, but for the moment, they could only wait for Logan and K's signal. Since Sying was already gone, they needed to know where he was before they acted.

* * *

In the meantime, Jubilee was, against all odds, right about her old friend Shym'r. She was indeed at the head of a Kree rebel group that was under the city, fighting back against the Shi'ar, even though they were slaves and many of them were injured gravely from one small insult or another. But Shym'r's group had taken in as many Kree and others as they could — and helped them to hide while they plotted several schemes to fight back.

She was easy enough to find. As soon as the ferals made a little headway underground, they were attacked, and after a brief fight with a massively large Kree warrior in which Logan came out on top, they were welcomed into the fight — particularly when they said they knew about Shym'r and wanted to speak to her.

The girl looked almost like a spitting image of Jubilee — though now, she was a bit taller, and she absolutely looked more the part of Kree warrior than she had when she was younger and Jubilee knew her.

Logan and K took very little time discussing what needed to be done to stop the Shi'ar, particularly when Shym'r found out that Jubilee had married a Kree and pledged immediately to help save her son. From there, it was a simple matter of logistics and diversions while Shym'r led Logan and K to where the meeting with Noh and Jubilee was supposed to happen.

From under the Shi'ar's very feet, K and Logan could hear the conversation that was going on above them … and they listened for a long moment before Logan looked down the tunnel to see that there was another access point aboveground a little farther down the line. He and K moved forward silently, doing their best to avoid tipping off the Shi'ar that anything was wrong. When they opened the manhole cover to exit the tunnels, they were glad to see that they were perhaps half a block away from where the meeting was taking place.

Above the back line of Shi'ar guards, there were no visible snipers — or whatever the Shi'ar equivalent was — so the two ferals shared a nod before they split up and started taking down Shi'ar guards one throat at a time from behind, easing them to the ground as they made their way closer to the conversation.

Finally, Noh looked past the Shi'ar in charge to see Logan and K already splattered with blood. Logan gave him a curt nod and let out a loud and low growl just to watch the guy in charge jump. Then, K followed Sying's scent trail into the buildings — which was, of course, the signal for Noh and Jubilee to simply let loose on the Shi'ar.

Logan stayed just long enough to be sure that all was well in hand before he turned and followed in K's wake. It stood to reason that the security detail on one lone Kree slave would be low — particularly when they had Sying so well in hand. But that wasn't going to go very well for the Shi'ar with both ferals on the hunt and out for blood.

When Logan caught up to K, he had to smirk. She was doing an amazingly bad job at interrogations — considering that she wasn't asking anything to any Shi'ar she came across, instead just … making sure that they would be entirely unable to call for help, cutting them down from behind.

"If I had to grade, I'd say you failed interrogation," Logan said quietly, smirking her way, though K's smile was not playful at all. "Even if I know better."

"I know. Horrible study. I need extra credit work, clearly." She tipped her head toward the fork in the halls. "Newest trail is to the left. But this is a familiar thoroughfare for him, it seems."

He nodded and gestured for her to lead the way. "Go on, then," Logan said. "I'll cover your back, but I'm not gettin' in front of you if you're in a mood like this."

* * *

"I wonder which way our friends went," Noh said mildly when he and Jubilee were through with the Shi'ar at the rendezvous point. The two of them had made their way out to the streets, and it was incredibly obvious which way their teammates were: they just had to follow the trail of bodies.

"It's a mystery," Jubilee said, shaking out her hands; she was already starting to build another plasmoid for when they caught up to their friends.

When Noh saw it, he smirked and then reached down to pick her up. "Let's catch up before they take all of the fight for themselves." With that, he picked her up to carry her down the bloody path that Logan and K had left for them to follow, speeding right along and knowing that this lead them directly to where Sying was.

* * *

In the meantime, on the _Marvel_, Chance was sitting at the controls of the ship and strumming his fingers, trying hard not to feel like he was just… babysitting the ship.

At least the _Marvel _had pulled up a few viewscreens so that Chance could see the action going on in Chandilar. He was able to see it when Jubilee and Noh met up with the Shi'ar, and he was able to see the explosions when Shimy'r's group got down to work. Both he and the _Marvel _seemed to be in the same frame of angry mind when Sying was visible, even if it was only for a moment. At least, Chance assumed that he and the ship were on the same page when he found himself thinking about blowing up Shi'ar and the _Marvel _charged up the weapons for him.

He grinned as he switched from observing to the weapons, though he didn't actually go so far as to fire them. He didn't need to start a fight when he was running the getaway ship. He _really _didn't need to get into any more trouble than he was already in.

"Come on," he muttered as much to himself as to the _Marvel_. "When we get home, we can tell Sying about the tryouts. You know. If Dad will even talk to me."

The _Marvel _hummed back at him, but he wasn't sure exactly what that was supposed to mean.

He didn't get the chance to think on it too much, though, because the proximity alarm went off. Chance pushed aside the viewscreens that were showing what the adults were up to so he could focus on the fight in front of him. It looked like the Shi'ar had sent a solid group to steal the ship while Noh and Jubilee were distracted. They'd managed to find the cloaked ship simply by virtue of physically checking each area, but they clearly weren't expecting anyone to be in it — which was their mistake.

Chance opened fire on the group of Shi'ar, who quickly scattered. The situation was definitely to Chance's advantage — a group of fighters versus a ship — and he made sure to keep up the firing pattern so that the Shi'ar didn't even think about looking toward the _Marvel_.

He was feeling pretty good about himself — though a bit disappointed, if he was honest, since all he'd really done was scatter some soldiers that were way outclassed by the ship. But when a Shi'ar ship showed up, Chance shook his head to himself. "That… okay then," he muttered before he grabbed the controls and put the _Marvel _in the air. "Time to show 'em what we can do."

This wasn't quite like flying in the sim had been, even though there were a few combat and dogfighting sims programmed in. There was a very different feeling, and a total adrenaline rush that seemed to be fueling the _Marvel _to respond a little faster, moving at the slightest touch.

Chance had started out with a disadvantage because he wasn't in the air yet, so the _Marvel _took a couple hits before he even really got into the fight, but once he was up, he was thrilled to find that the _Marvel_ was much faster and more maneuverable than the Shi'ar ship was.

"We can't fight the whole armada," Chance muttered to the _Marvel _even as he dodged the laser fire from the enemy ship. "We have to lose 'em."

The _Marvel _simply charged up the weapons in response, and Chance smirked. "Yeah, okay. Blowing them up would make it so they can't find us, but don't come crying to me when there's more of 'em."

With that, Chance spun the _Marvel _around to face the Shi'ar ship. He barely dodged one shot before he fired off his response — and with the weapons supercharged with the _Marvel _as upset as she was over pretty much everything that had happened, it was a much harder hit than Chance had been expecting.

He let out a low whistle at the explosion that followed and quickly got the ship out of danger. But by that time, the Shi'ar had called for a little more backup, not about to be outdone by a single Kree ship on their own home planet. So they were trying to find the _Marvel _by detonating charges, more or less trying to smoke him out.

It made sense: if they hit his ship, then they'd find him. But they could also watch the smoke to see where he was.

Which meant that Chance was gripping the controls hard and just trying to stay ahead of the smoke and the detonations. He managed to swing the ship around a nearby building that hid him well enough from the smoke, though it was a temporary solution, since if anyone looked out from the building, from that distance, they'd definitely see him, cloaking or no.

"We might just have to fight out of this," he muttered to the _Marvel_, and the ship seemed to be totally willing to do just that as it lit up a bit brighter a second before one of the detonations finally hit close enough to send a wash of smoke over the _Marvel _and give away their position.

The detonation was followed almost immediately by a solid blast as soon as Chance was visible that shook the _Marvel _hard and nearly threw Chance before he flipped the ship nearly upside down to scream past the Shi'ar ship and return fire.

"Alright," Chance said as he squared up his next shot. "Let's show 'em what we can do."

* * *

Logan and K finally found Sying curled into a ball as the Shi'ar locked him into a much smaller room. And seeing their grandson in such a defensive, submission posture had them both going right to the edge of their tempers.

With a snarl, K rushed into the room, claws out as she dug into the nearest Shi'ar guard. The second guard moved to pull something out of his pocket, but Logan got there first — and removed the entire arm that was attached to that hand. He curled back his lip in a growl and went after that guard as K moved on from the guard to Sying himself.

The panel on the energy barrier was dealt with quickly, but she couldn't _stop _growling when she saw the collar on him. In a slightly out of character moment from what _he _was used to seeing, K pulled Sying over roughly and told him to hold still as she only let out enough claw to deal with the collar.

Of course, the moment that the claw touched the collar, Sying winced, pulling away from her claw and just making it that much more irritating to her. She growled a little lower and let him go to the ground before she knelt on top of him and rested a knee on his forehead. "Be. Still." An instant later, she'd put the claw back to the collar and ignored his obvious pain at the noise the collar was emitting as she sliced through it — and shocked both of them the instant she cut the collar in two.

It was enough to blast her off of him, though not quite enough to knock her out — but that didn't help the Shi'ar rushing toward the room, since Logan was now the one with the uncontrollable growl.

He didn't wait to see what the Shi'ar had to say before he tore into them, while K took a moment to gather her senses before she cranked the collar open and checked on Sying. He was breathing but entirely unconscious. She got to her feet when Sying wouldn't wake up and slung him over her shoulders in a fireman's carry, casually following Logan and stepping over dead Shi'ar as he cleared the path back out.

They were almost to the split in the hallway when they met up with Jubilee and Noh, who looked both relieved and upset when they saw Sying. "How is he?" Noh asked.

"You girls can get him back to the ship," Logan growled out. "Noh, you're comin' with me."

Noh raised an eyebrow at that even as Jubilee rushed over to K to look Sying over. "Alright."

"He's just mad that I killed more than him," K said easily.

"Then there is still more revenge to be wrought," Noh surmised. "Good."

"Sying said he wasn't the only one to watch out for, so … we'll take care of maple sugar," K said as Jubilee started to build fresh plasmoids.

Noh nodded his agreement. "Then I will follow you," he told Logan. The two of them took off toward the fork in the hallway that Logan and K had found earlier, this time going to the right. Neither of them were surprised to find that the path led them farther into the building, but by the time they had burst into what was clearly a dungeon, Noh _was _surprised when he saw the three captives there.

He recognized Anola, of course, as well as his alternate, younger self, though the little girl was a new face to him. In an instant, he had gone to the bars to simply tear them out of the walls and let them out. "_Are you the only ones?_" he asked, wondering if his father was around anywhere, though his gaze hardened when Anola nodded her head.

Logan headed down deeper into the cells as he sniffed around. "This way," he called out.

Noh helped Anola to her feet and shot Logan a quizzical look. "Shouldn't we get them out?"

"Once we get all of 'em, yeah," he agreed. "You wanna run her back to the _Marvel_, be my guest, but I'm gonna keep going until we know we got all of 'em."

"We were the only ones I have seen ... except one boy…" Anola said in careful English.

Logan looked slightly irritated, glaring down into the darkness before he turned back to them. "You talking about Sying?" Logan asked her, and when she nodded, he looked visibly irritated. "Then what the hell are you waiting for?"

Noh shook his head at Logan as he bent down to offer his hand to the little boy standing in front of his sister. "_Let's get out of here_," he told them gently, though Kel still looked to his mother for confirmation before he let Noh get anywhere near his sister so he could carry them out. "I'll take these two and be back. I only have two hands, I'm afraid," he told Logan before he rushed off with the two kids.

"You did find Sying?" Anola asked, still in careful English as she watched Logan with a frown.

"That's how we knew to look for you," Logan said.

"He has tried to keep my children safe," she explained.

Logan nodded and started to look well past her. "Yeah. He's a good kid. We can talk about this later, though." He made a push Anola, popping his claws as he did so, looking ahead to an approaching group of Shi'ar.

"Yes, of course," she nodded quickly, her eyes wide as she watched him and his claws.

Of course, the path to the _Marvel _was easy to follow — as before, there were bodies strewn across the street where K and Jubilee had obviously traded places. Logan frowned, wondering if Jubilee had worn herself out and used up all the sparkles. Not that it was a problem with K in the mood she was … he just hated to see Jubes out of sparkle.

"You think she switched because she had to or because K wanted her count to stay higher?" Logan asked when Noh caught up with them again.

"Likely because she had to," Noh said. "She has been itching to destroy Shi'ar for what they have done — and I would not be surprised at all if she wore herself out in the most _spectacular _explosions."

Logan tipped his head toward a half-melted building around the corner. "Ya think?"

Noh smirked. "That's my Jubilee," he said.

Logan had to chuckle as they made their way through the streets, though as they did, the city was rocked with a series of explosions that sounded and felt as if they were happening from all angles. The little group had to pause and take stock of their surroundings as the guardhouse near the palace simply collapsed. "I think the rebels got this under control."

Noh let out an almost disappointed breath. "If I were not so concerned for my son, I would join them and overtake this world... " He shook his head. "I swear to you, Logan, if the rebels do not upend this planet effectively, I will return and do it myself."

* * *

The girls were barely into the square — where they could hear Shi'ar troops gathering — when an explosion rocked the city far across the center of it and directly opposite where Chance was supposed to have the _Marvel _stashed. "Your friend Shym'r has an army down there," K told Jubilee. The two women had switched jobs not long after Jubilee had blown up an entire battalion of guards with an incredibly massive plasmoid, the aftereffects of which sparkled, sizzled, and hissed out colored streamers for at well over ten minutes after the initial explosion.

"Yeah, well. You look a certain way, you just have no choice in being fabulous," Jubilee defended. "Did you give her a way to contact us?"

"She insisted on it," K said with a nod. "After how the two of you parted company, she wanted to be sure you were still alive — and she wanted to see the Kree boy you married. She was particularly interested in that." K paused and looked Jubilee's way. "You did get your codes back, right? Even if Sinta was notified to change them. That sounds like something he'd want to know."

"They never left the room currently full of dead Shi'ar. So yeah, more or less fixed that problem."

"Oh, good," K said with a nod before she darted forward to the approaching Shi'ar — and set several of them back when she let out a snarl just before attacking while Jubilee tried to keep from laughing at the expressions on the Shi'ar guard's faces when they found themselves up against the tiny feral.

"If you're done," Jubilee called out just before K sliced through the last one. "We're almost there."

"Then where's Chance?" K asked, turning to find where the boy was with their ride.

Almost as soon as she'd asked it, the _Marvel _uncloaked farther out from them and pulled in front of them, with Chance leaning out of a door and grinning madly, looking singed as he waved them into the also-slightly-singed ship.

K let out a breath and took over carrying Sying the last little bit of distance so Jubilee could rush off to the medical bay and get out whatever supplies she thought he needed. "The guys get back yet?"

Chance shook his head, losing his smile when he saw that Sying was out. "Not yet. But I've got some food set out…"

K stepped back from Sying and looked up at Chance. "Can you find them for me?" she asked. "On the scanners?"

He nodded. "On it," he promised before he rushed off to get the scanners set up. He and the _Marvel _seemed to have a great understanding; the ship slid holograms his way before he could ask for them, and then he called out to K to let them know: "They're almost here. About three blocks out from where we're parked."

"Show me," she said. "I'll clear the path and meet them in the middle."

Chance nodded and pointed out the coordinates to her. "Just about straight east."

"Thanks," she called out, rushing to get back into the fight. The Shi'ar that were headed toward Logan and Noh weren't watching their back, so as Logan and Noh faced them head on, their ranks were suddenly in a panic as men started dropping dead from behind too.

"You guys are so slow sometimes," K said when they finally came into view.

Noh gave her a dry look for that one. "There were Shi'ar to be slaughtered."

"Oh no! What's that like?" she asked as sarcastically as possible before she dropped another one. "I've been painting my nails; can't you tell?" she asked, holding up her bloodied hands.

Noh glared her way before he took a breath and switched gears. In a second, he was in a white run, taking out Shi'ar in milliseconds flat, faster than anyone could keep track, until there was absolutely no sign of any Shi'ar for blocks and blocks around.

"Way to light a fire, babe," Logan said with a chuckle before he stole a quick kiss and the two of them simply led the Kree that were being held as ransom right to the ship.

"It's called 'motivational'," K said slowly.

When Noh caught up to the two of them again, he made sure to shoot K a smirk as they got into the _Marvel_.

"Was that so hard?" she asked before she kissed his cheek.

He shook his head at her. "How is Sying?"

"With Jubilee in the med bay. He's alive." K sighed. "I don't know how hard the shock hit him when I cut the collar off, but even secondhand wasn't very pleasant."

Noh frowned and put a hand on K's shoulder. "Yes. Well. That is where I should be, then. If you could make sure Anola's family is attended too…"

"You got it," she agreed. "Chance has flight covered."

He nodded and kissed her cheek before he sped off toward the med bay to find Jubilee and Sying.

Logan stepped onto the bridge, where Chance was waiting to hear what was happening. "Well?" Logan said his way. "You flyin' or what?"

"Oh. I guess I am," Chance said, climbing into the cockpit.

"You're the only pilot I see," Logan said, dropping into the nearest seat.

"I just figured Noh would want to fly out of Shi'ar space — I mean, I can handle it," Chance said quickly.

Logan shook his head and leaned back, crossing his arms over his chest and closing his eyes. "He's busy. It's all you."

Chance nodded and tried to hide his smile as he got down to work, tapping the _Marvel_ on a spot in the center of the console. "C'mon. Let's see if we can do that twist…" Before he could say anything else, the engines started to purr to life, and he grinned. "Oh yeah. We got this."


	12. Just Like His Mother

When Noh arrived in the med bay, he found that Jubilee had already hooked Sying up to the IV of medicine that Hank kept for these kinds of Kree emergencies. The look on her face was one of muted anger as she looked over their little boy, who was unconscious.

Noh's expression morphed into one a lot like Jubilee's as he watched his wife with their son. It was obvious she was upset, and with good reason. There was a ring of purple where the collar had been on Sying, and the skin on his neck, shoulders, and chest was split badly from its use. The thing that had them both furious, though, was the fact that there were clear markings of abuse when Jubilee got Sying out of the shirt he was wearing to try to clean him up a little better. Lash marks and other deep cuts littered his chest and back, and it was obvious his wrist was broken from the discoloration there.

Noh stared at Sying, his breathing barely controlled through his nose, before he had to force his attention elsewhere. The more he saw, the more he wanted to turn the _Marvel _around and finish destroying all of Chandilar.

Maybe he would, when Sying was safe and home.

But there were also other matters to consider, like the family that they had rescued. Anola and her two children also needed medical attention, so Noh silently made his way over to them to get them set up for that very purpose.

"_You are his parents?" _Anola asked softly when Noh approached to offer his aid.

He nodded lightly. "_I'm truly sorry for what was done to you._"

Anola let out a sigh. "_That is what the Shi'ar do_," she pointed out before she waved Noh off. "_I can care for my children. You care for yours."_

Noh stepped back from Anola to let her go to her little boy and girl, though he couldn't help but watch her and the tender way that she looked after Kel and Ula before he directed them to the galley for some food.

_So that's genetic then,_ he thought to himself before he turned his attention to Sying and Jubilee.

Jubilee was holding onto Sying's uninjured hand as she brushed his hair back from his face. The way he was breathing, steady and shallow, it was obvious that he was exhausted, but he started to stir, almost jerking awake and pulling back and away from Jubilee as soon as he was conscious enough to be aware of someone touching him.

For a moment, Jubilee looked positively devastated before she said, in a gentle, reassuring tone, "It's alright," and simply him into a solid hug, holding him there until he was awake enough to see that he was safe. It was the same tactic she used on Logan: hug him until he was alright.

It worked easily enough, and as soon as Sying realized who was hugging him, he clutched onto Jubilee hard. He let out a tired noise a second before he simply fell apart on her, his shoulders shaking as he cried his heart out and Jubilee held on tight and shushed him.

Noh sat down beside the two of them and pulled both of them over to him to join in the hug, though Sying was still hanging on tightly to Jubilee the whole time, clearly not about to let go of his mother any time soon. What Sying was doing couldn't be described as a quiet cry in the least, instead loud and full of terror and exhaustion and pain and desperation that broke both Noh's and Jubilee's hearts.

Not that Jubilee was far behind him. She was crying in pure relief, holding onto him for the first time in _months_, promising over and over again that he was safe and that she wasn't going to let anyone touch him ever again.

Eventually, simply because they had cried themselves out, both Sying and Jubilee finally leaned back against Noh together — and he was wiping his own cheeks as he kissed the tops of their heads.

"I missed you," Sying muttered into Jubilee's shoulder.

She ran her hand through his hair and kissed the side of his head. "I know, sweetie. We're going home now."

"You were right," he said, his statement punctuated by a miserable hiccough. "You were right about Andri'i."

"I truly wish I wasn't," Noh said.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen."

"Sying," Jubilee said, tipping her head down to catch his gaze. "Sying, it's _not _your fault, alright? Nobody should ever hurt you for following your heart." She tapped him in the center of the chest and smiled.

He nodded and then hugged her again, clearly still terrified and traumatized by everything that had happened.

"We were able to rescue everyone," Noh told him quietly when it seemed like he was ready to listen again.

Sying picked up his head and looked honestly relieved to hear it. "Oh good."

"Anola said that you protected them," he said, resting a hand on Sying's shoulder before he cupped his face. "You were quite the hero."

"I don't know if I'm cut out to be a hero if that's what it's going to take," Sying muttered.

Jubilee stared at him for a moment before she pulled him into a hug and simply started to kiss his head and hair. "Sying, no one expects you to do that."

"I had to, though," he said quietly. "They were going to hurt Ula."

Noh had to bite back a low hiss as he thought of the little girl who looked so much like her mother, and he took a deep breath. "Sying," he said quietly, "I'm proud of you."

Sying looked up at him wide-eyed and then simply flung his arms around Noh's neck, and Noh was careful as he wrapped him up of both the IV line and the injuries on his little boy. When Sying's shoulders started to shake again as he cried, Noh let out a breath and all but cradled Sying as he started to sing lullabies under his breath.

* * *

Jubilee couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Shym'r on the screen when she got to the bridge. Logan had been catching Shym'r up on what the ferals had done — and she was in the middle of joyfully telling him how precious little was left still standing in Chandilar.

"Oh. My. God," Jubilee said when she saw her Kree doppelganger on the screen, though she looked older, and her hair was much longer than Jubilee's. "I am _so _happy to see you! And leading the Kree resistance! Trigor would be so proud." Jubilee was bouncing in place as Shym'r's smirk turned into a rueful smile.

"You remember his name then," she said. "He was my brother and my mentor. And he taught me well."

"No kidding! Taking down the Shi'ar capitol city? Nice work," Jubilee said, grinning before she waved Noh over. "This is my husband, Noh-Varr. I'm sorry you couldn't meet him in person. Shym'r."

Noh smiled warmly at the girl on the screen. "I'm sure we'll meet in person soon enough, considering the good work you're doing on Chandilar," he said with a smirk. "With what's happened here, I'd love to aid you in taking the whole planet."

"I think we have it under control," she replied with one eyebrow raised, barely controlling her reaction to seeing Jubilee wrapped up in a Kree… and a high-ranking one at that. "But we'll keep in touch much better now, _Ambassador._"

Jubilee grinned back at her. "So totally would like to see you for _once _when one world or another wasn't in peril," Jubilee said. "I'm sure we could have what we earthlings call 'fun'."

"And razing Shi'ar isn't fun?" Noh murmured her way.

"Not as much as things that involve sugar and sugar sand beaches," Jubilee replied. "With music … and sunsets …"

Noh laughed and leaned over to kiss her cheek. "Ah, but you are inviting company."

"Pretty sure we could find her a cute little surfer boy to unwind with," Jubilee said, grinning even wider. "She's adorable, after all."

"I will agree only because she looks so much like you," Noh said. "I do not usually notice other women."

"If there's nothing else then," Shym'r said, cutting into the rampant flirting. "I'm sure the palace isn't going to destroy itself."

"Are you sure we can't simply… drop me off on Chandilar? I'll find my way home," Noh said in a gentle whisper in Jubilee's ear.

Jubilee turned and fixed him with a look. "Do you think your son will be alright sitting in the ship while _we _tear it down? Because I can promise you Wolvie and K won't babysit if we go back."

He let out a breath. "_Fine_," he whispered to her before he turned back to Shym'r on the screen. "I'm certain Sinta is sending reinforcements, but should you need any more in securing their empire, you know how to find me."

Jubilee waved brightly at the highly amused Shym'r just before the connection was terminated then turned and kissed the sense out of Noh. "So adorable."

He was grinning at her when the kiss finally broke and wrapping himself around her. "Jubilee, they are overtaking the Shi'ar," he said in a voice that was fairly breathless after she'd finished with him.

"Well … this is what happens when they mess with our family," she said with a shrug. "The family fights back."

"And then we leave… and Jubilee, they are going to the palace," he said, resting his head against the base of her jaw as he kissed her shoulder.

"Logan said they had the plan already in place; they just needed something to really take out their top men. And that? Was us." She wrapped him up a little tighter. "They've been waiting for an opportunity for years."

"I was _born _to help with that very thing," Noh said, though he wasn't exactly trying to do anything but kiss her.

"And you did. You, me, and our adopted parents. Oh, and by the way, they had zero plan to deal with mama bear and papa bear. Apparently, Shi'ar don't train for that kind of angry."

"Prideful, arrogant people," Noh said.

"I swear, it must be an alien thing," she giggled.

"And yet," Noh said, picking his head up to grin at her, "you still married me."

"You have great hair and a very cute butt." She let her eyes widen. "And you're a really good kisser too."

He smiled at her. "And you, Jubilee, share all those same qualities," he said before he simply picked her up to return the favor and kiss the sense out of her too.

After all, they both needed to get lost in each other, in something _good_, when their little boy was so lost in all the bad that had happened.

* * *

It had been a while since they'd left Shi'ar territory, so, after making sure that Logan was fed and on his way to getting cleaned up, K decided to relieve Jubilee from her post alongside Sying so that she could sugar up — since it was doing wonders for Noh too. She entered the medical bay with a handful of Pixie Sticks and held them up so Jubilee could see them. "Fruit-flavored sugar for maple sugar — what say you?"

"Are you trading my kid for candy?" Jubilee teased.

"Just time. There is actual, real food waiting for you in the galley," K replied. "Logan's been fed and watered; it's down to you now."

"That sounds pretty good right now. Thanks," Jubilee said, all bright and bubbly until she got out of Sying's sight line and then let some of her exhaustion show.

K sat down in the spot Jubilee had vacated and leaned back, resting her hand on Sying's arm as she did so.

"Did you get something to eat too?" Sying asked quietly.

"Are you kidding?" K asked, turning to look at him with a little smirk. "Do you think Logan would have eaten anything without pushing me to do the same?"

Sying couldn't help but smirk back at her. "No… I just wanted to check."

"I really wasn't hurt very much," K said, though she shrugged and gestured to herself. "All appearances aside. Very little of this is mine."

"Sorry I missed it."

"I'm pretty sure that the _Marvel _recorded parts of the fight, if what Chance told me was accurate."

"Sounds about right," Sying said, then leaned his head back. "Thanks, Grammy K."

"You look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders, Sparkly Maple Sugar," K said, brushing the hair out of his face. "You know the plan was to decimate the entire species if there was more injury to you than when we saw you." She smirked and raised one eyebrow his way. "Do you feel … more injured or less?"

"I'm going to have to say less, because I really don't want to go back to Chandilar," he said with a small smirk.

"That's right," K said, nodding. "You missed meeting the Kree slave leader that can pass as your mother's identical twin. Half of Chandilar is flattened."

"I was kind of busy meeting the Kree who is actually my _grandmother _in this universe?" Sying pointed out.

"Yeah, she's a nice lady," K said with a nod. "I'm at a loss as to how they even found her, of all the Kree near Hala."

"Dad says Sinta's looking into it. He's pretty furious," Sying said.

"I'm sure. They were fine when we left them last," K said, nodding. "So that had to be a real shock to Sinta."

Sying nodded again. "She didn't really know why the Shi'ar came after her. Dad was going to talk to her… That should be a weird discussion."

"I'm sure," K agreed.

"She's not my real grandma, though," Sying said, shooting K a small smile. "That's still you."

"I can share," K said. "After all, I'm married to your Mom's adoptive dad."

Sying nodded, still seeming to think something over. "Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask me anything, any time."

"How do you…" He paused and tried to reorder his thoughts. "I can't ask my dad this kind of thing. And I just… how do you … when you're hurt, how do you _deal _with it?"

K blinked his way for a moment. "I'm not sure I understand the question," she admitted.

"I don't really know how to ask it," he said sheepishly. He took a deep breath and tried to explain. "They… So, alright. They were going to hurt Ula. So I promised not to turn off my receptors," he said. "And I… I don't know how to deal with it if I can't turn it off."

"Oh," K said, though she let out a long breath as she tried to find a way to explain to him what she thought he was getting at. "You … you just have to accept it. You can't ignore it or not feel it, so you have to accept that it's going to hurt and push through it."

Sying frowned as he thought it over. "I don't know how to do that without … I've never had to…"

She tipped her head and tried to come at him from a different angle. "Alright. So I can't really speak for everyone else, but … if it hurts enough, you can add it into your anger. But that might just be me."

He tipped his head to the side. "No, I think that makes sense," he said slowly. "I mean, I was really mad."

"It's easier to build it in with your anger if they're doing something to someone else. Just don't get lost in the misery of it enough to accept it as 'just what you get'."

"But you said to accept it," he said with a frown.

"Yes. Accept that it's happening. Accept that you can't avoid it. But do not accept that you _deserve it._" She snuggled him a little better at that. "But that's a whole different question, really. Logan gets lost in that sometimes."

He nodded as he thought it over. "I can see that," he said quietly. "Especially if ... if someone was _telling _him it was his fault."

"He has a tendency to believe the worst in himself. Do _not _let that happen," K warned.

Sying leaned over and rested his head on her arm. "I just want to go home," he said.

"Lucky for you, that's where we're headed," K promised.

He stayed where he was for a good long time. "Good. I'm tired of space."

"And while your mother will be happy to hear it, don't say that too loudly around your father."

He smirked quietly. "I won't," he promised.

* * *

Chance had been flying the _Marvel _for a while when Noh finally made his way up to the cockpit and offered to relieve him so that he could grab something to eat — with the request that he take some food to Sying to help with his healing as well.

Of course, Chance was more than willing to do that, and he scooted off to go grab something to eat, scooping up half of it to take with him to the med bay, where it was obvious that no one had told Sying that Chance had come along on the rescue mission, because Sying looked downright surprised to see him there.

"Brought you some food," Chance said, climbing into the seat next to his friend to lay out what he'd brought so they could split it between the two of them. Sying was hooked up to the familiar blue IV that would help his healing, but Chance had to wonder looking at him how much healing he'd even done yet.

Sying caught him staring at the different cuts and scars and smirked. "I look awful, right?"

Chance couldn't help but snort out a laugh. "Not gonna lie — you absolutely do."

"I know," Sying said, leaning back into the pillows with a stick of jerky. He held up a hand and shook it at Chance. "Wrist isn't broken anymore, though," he said, proving it by moving the hand, though it still looked discolored and swollen.

"Well, that's something." Chance tried to sound optimistic, but it was hard when his friend looked so … _beaten down._

"I don't exactly heal as fast as Elin and Logan," Sying said with a small sigh, leaning back again. "My dad said it could be a few weeks before I'm all the way healed. Scars take the longest to heal, apparently."

Chance looked his friend over with a small frown. By that time, Sying's entire torso was wrapped, and there were wrapping on his shoulders and neck too. But he had seen the mission from the Marvel and knew about the collar, so at least the neck made sense. "Are you alright?"

"Not really," Sying admitted, grabbing some more food as he said it.

Chance nodded quietly, watching his friend shovel food into his mouth like he wasn't going to get another bite. "Hey, Sying."

Sying looked up at him, his mouth too full to answer.

"I'm sorry," Chance said quietly.

Sying looked totally dumbfounded and quickly swallowed around his bite of food. "What for?" he asked.

"For…" Chance let out his breath. "I know you're mad at me for dating Krissy, and it wasn't cool of me when I knew—"

"No, no," Sying said quickly, cutting into Chance's apology. "Hey, I — I _tried _with Krissy, and she said no. I have to get over that. That's on me." He shook his head. "I'm sorry for being a jealous rage monster. _I _should be the one apologizing. I mean, it's not like I have any claim to her."

"It still wasn't cool of me."

"It wasn't," Sying agreed. "But hey, I've just spent a month finding out firsthand what it's like when someone thinks they own you. It kind of makes the whole possessive thing super unattractive, you know?"

"I'm sorry that happened to you," Chance said, his voice softening even more. He really didn't know what else to say.

"Me too," Sying said, pausing in his inhalation of all the food in front of him as he stared up at the ceiling. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

"What?"

"I mean, I get my grandparents, and I get my parents, but how did you get on the rescue party?"

Chance couldn't help but grin as he leaned forward to answer Sying. "Well, I wasn't exactly invited."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." He nodded, and the grin widened. "The _Marvel _helped me stow away until it was too far to turn back."

"You are going to get in so much trouble when we get home," Sying said, though he couldn't help but grin when he said it.

"Oh yeah," Chance said. "Your grandfather made me call home and tell my parents what I did."

Sying winced theatrically. "Ouch."

"Yeah." Chance nodded and grabbed a handful of candy to pop in his mouth to fill the silence. "But it was totally worth it. I wasn't about to let my friend hang and _not _do something about it."

"Thanks, Chance."

"I wasn't the only one, you know. Literally _everyone _back home wanted to come. I just got lucky enough to be the one who stowed away and got away with it," Chance said.

"I'm not sure that makes me feel any better," Sying admitted, scrunching up his nose. "Knowing that I scared everyone."

Chance gestured to the bandages Sying was wearing. "Pretty sure you get a pass on this one."

"Yeah, I think it's a little different when your own girlfriend is the one who does it to you."

"Yeah, it's worse," Chance agreed, pulling a face. "Sorry your first girlfriend sucked so hard."

"You were the one to tell me to put myself out there," Sying said with a smirk.

"Yeah, sorry about that too."

"It's okay." Sying grabbed one of the protein bars, since it was chock full of what he needed to heal. "It's not your fault I have spectacularly bad taste."

"No, you have great taste. You have bad _rebound _taste."

"There's a difference?"

"Pretty sure, yeah."

"Huh." Sying leaned back, chewing thoughtfully, before he nodded. "Anyway, thanks for coming after me. It really does mean a lot that you'd do that."

Chance grinned. "Hey, that's what friends do, right?" When Sying just nodded, he grinned wider. "Besides, now you can come and try out for the team with me. Elin's already on it."

"I don't know if I will," Sying admitted, closing his eyes for a long moment before he looked Chance's way and gestured at his wrappings. "I don't think I'm cut out for it."

"Because you got hurt?"

"Because I let them win," Sying admitted quietly. Chance frowned at the answer and simply waited for his friend to explain, and it took Sying a good long moment to get around to it, too. "I was doing everything they told me to. I wasn't even fighting them, Chance."

Chance's frown deepened. "What did they do?"

"They said they'd hit Ula if I didn't—"

"Then that's not on you," Chance cut in, shaking his head. "No way."

"Are you sure about that?"

Chance watched his friend's expression for a long moment before he let out a breath. "Okay, so. You remember when Sinister hit the institute a few months ago?" He waited for Sying to nod before he continued. "Well, Mom thought it was probably a good idea for us to know more about him, so she told us what his deal is… and she told us about how he grabbed Charlie and Kate and K and my dad for a while when Charlie was a baby."

"I didn't know about that."

"You weren't born. Neither was Krissy — or Elin, even," Chance said before he took a deep breath. "Anyway, the point is, Sinister threatened Charlie to get my dad to come." He shook his head. "You're not the only one to get cornered trying to protect people. Even my _dad _gets caught in that trap. Bad guys have been doing stuff like that for _ages_." He smirked. "It's, like, Bad Guy 101. Watch any cartoons lately?"

Sying let out a huff of a laugh. "Well, when you put it like _that_, it sounds ridiculous."

"Because it is."

"Uh-huh."

Chance shrugged. "Fine. Don't believe me. But for what it's worth, it kinda sounds to me like you did the right thing, so… when you're ready, you should go out for the team."

"Fair enough," Sying said with a quiet laugh before he leaned over and pulled his friend into a hug. "Seriously. Thanks for coming."

"Anytime. Let's just not make a habit of needing daring space rescues, okay?"

"I'm so with you there."


	13. Grounded Space Pirate

Elin had heard from her parents not long after most of those on the Marvel had finally passed out after the battle and the hard crash of adrenaline afterward. She knew they were fine. She knew they were on their way home, but she also knew that she'd had weeks to read over Sying's emails — including several that got to her well after her parents had left that had been hung up in some kind of weird energy twist in space. So when the ship finally landed in the hangar in Westchester, she was nearly as uptight as Scott was waiting to see all of them.

The doors to the ship opened, and first out was Jubilee and Sying — so Elin didn't wait to see the others before she rushed over and gave him a tight hug. "I got all your emails," she told him quietly. "I'm so sorry you had such a horrible time at the end. I was so worried."

Sying wrapped her up just as tight and buried his face in her shoulder for a second. "I missed you," he muttered.

"Don't go that far alone again, okay?" Elin said.

"Believe me, I won't," he promised, still holding onto her and sounding entirely serious and tired.

"Why don't you head down to see Hank," Jubilee suggested. "I'm sure Elin will keep you company." Elin nodded along, and the two of them headed toward the lab, past Scott, who definitely looked relieved to see Sying upright, even if he was shaken still.

Logan and K were out of the ship next, and Scott didn't mind telling them right off how well Elin had handled herself in their absence. "We had a couple runs while you were gone — went off without a hitch," he told them both.

"Not surprised," Logan said with a nod. "Still glad to hear it though."

"Chance did exactly as he was told," K told Scott. "And he was a lot of help while we were fighting Shi'ar."

Scott nodded but was looking past K to where Chance was hanging back in the ship. "It's good to hear he _can _follow instructions."

"Just needed to be reminded of the fear of Dad," K suggested with a smirk before she stepped back to watch how it was going to unfold, knowing full well that Logan was back to irritated with the kid once they were out of danger.

"I'm sorry I snuck out," Chance said, though he was still a bit behind the others. "I just wanted to help."

"That doesn't excuse your behavior," Scott told him sternly. "Every single one of us here was worried, but we all know to be where we're supposed to be. If everyone who was worried went on rescue missions, there'd be no one at the institute and no one to run the missions that need to be run in the meantime."

"I know," Chance said.

"And you went anyway," Scott said. "That doesn't help your case, Chance."

"I know," Chance said again.

Scott sighed and shook his head. "Did you even _think _about the consequences before you got on that ship? You've been gone for weeks — in the middle of the school year — and you didn't tell me or your mother. Do you understand how _worried _she was when we didn't know where you were?"

"I didn't mean to make anyone worry," Chance said softly.

"You can't just rush blindly into situations. There are consequences to your actions," Scott said sharply. "You had _no _idea what you were going into, you didn't tell anyone — you're lucky Logan found you. If something had happened to you in space and no one knew where you were, _no one _would have known where to look for you." By this time, it was incredibly clear to everyone that Scott was downright mad about the whole thing, as everyone there had heard that tone at some point or another. "You were gone for the better part of a month, into a situation that you _aren't trained for_. You're lucky the worst of the consequences are here and that you weren't captured or worse out there."

Chance shifted and looked down at his feet. "I'm sorry. I just wanted to help Sying."

"I understand that. But that doesn't mean you can sneak onto a mission." Scott glared at Chance. "You _can't _skip ahead without putting in the work. If you're not ready, you could get yourself _killed_. This isn't a game."

"I wasn't trying to… I know I have to pass the try-outs… I'm not trying to skip ahead, I swear," Chance said quickly, his eyes wide. "I just wanted to help Sying. That's all, I promise."

Scott shook his head and then gestured for Chance to come with him. "We'll talk about this later, _after _you apologize to your mother," he said. "Right now, you're grounded. And you will _stay _grounded until you are caught up on _everything _that your teachers assign you to make up for the month you missed."

Chance's shoulders dropped as he followed Scott with a very quiet, 'yes, sir.'

* * *

"Mom, I think Sying's having a bad dream." Ael had climbed into bed between Jubilee and Noh, and he looked overly concerned, his eyes wide.

"Okay, I got it," Jubilee mumbled as she got up and headed off - eyes still more or less closed even if she was anxious about what she would find. While she went to check on Sying, Noh pulled Ael over to calm _him_ down too, knowing that he had to be worried about his big brother. Especially since he knew the Shi'ar had been involved, and he vaguely remembered his own experience with them too.

When she got to the boys' room, Sying was curled in on himself, a lot like he'd been when K found him. He wasn't thrashing or yelling or anything, but he kept very quietly whimpering, which just broke Jubilee's heart. She thought about how best to reach out to him, though she was very sure that if he was having a PTSD moment from his time in captivity that _touching _him could very well be a bad idea, so instead, she focused on gently reaching out telepathically and calling his name. _Wake up, sweetheart_. _It's all just a dream now._

After a few gentle nudges, Sying finally started to wake up - and startled when he didn't immediately recognize his surroundings, since he'd wrapped himself pretty well in his blankets. Still, Jubilee's presence in his mind calmed him down before he could truly _panic_ outright. "Mom?"

"Hi, sweetheart," Jubilee replied as she slowly made her way over to him. "Mind if I sit with you?"

Sying shook his head quietly. "Go ahead."

"Oh good," Jubilee said, then did her best to put a bit of bounce into her step as she made her way over and sat down next to him. "I really missed your face."

"Missed yours too," Sying said automatically as he almost methodically started to peel his covers off so he wasn't so _stuck_.

"So … your first really nasty … um. Whatever. Exploration. Walk about … you know. I found that late night movies and lots of snacks in the wee hours are good therapy. If you're game."

"Yeah, that… that sounds good," Sying agreed.

"So … comedy or …."

"Definitely comedy," Sying said quickly. "I don't want anything sad. And _definitely_ no romances."

"Action? We can find like … something with Jackie Chan - that's always a winner, too. Especially if it's both action and comedy."

"Yeah," Sying said with a quiet smile. "That would work, yeah."

"Perfect," Jubilee said with a smile. "So … let's go down to the big screen, huh? Get out of the bedroom. I'll see if you lost your edge on catching popcorn with your _face _if you look too out of it."

"I really look that bad?" Sying asked.

"Well no, but you know … I figure it's been a while since you even got to watch any movies, so it'd be better on the bigger screen," Jubilee said before she leaned forward. "And so you know? You'll be less likely to wake up a certain _Summers _if you keep the popcorn on the main level."

"Voice of experience?" Sying teased.

"You know it," Jubilee said. "Wolvie let me watch movies all the time when I first got with the X-Men and had trouble sleeping." She shivered. "It wa kind of a big wake up call going from living in Beverly Hills and hanging out in the mall to savin' his sorry butt from cyborgs."

"You always talked about it like it was the best thing that ever happened to you," Sying said.

"It _is_," Jubilee said. "But I was _so _not prepared for anything like that. At all."

Sying held his breath for a long moment before he answered with a quiet, "Me neither."

"I know everyone thinks they're ready for the mess that comes with this team, but… there's no way to prepare for it. Not really." Jubilee leaned her head on his shoulder for just a moment. "So. Since you can't prepare - and all we can do is help you get through the stupid after the fact, and remind you that you don't _need _to do anything you don't want to - how about we go raid the pantry and watch some movies?"

"Yeah," Sying said, then smiled lightly. "That sounds like something I _want _to do."

* * *

"So … is your dad offering graduation requirements for 'space pirates' or is that just an honorary thing?" James asked Chance as he kept him company in the library - mostly keeping people away from Chance so he could start to catch up on his homework, but also partly to help him out when he got some of the trickier sections, seeing as Chance hadn't been in class to get the help from the teachers.

"That's never gonna die, is it," Chance muttered.

"Not likely," James agreed, leaning his head as far back as he could and staring at the ceiling. "Do you prefer 'stowaway' or 'bilge rat'?"

"Please don't start either of those," Chance said quickly.

"Oh, no. I've just heard them …don't think either particularly fit though. Scallawag. Scurvy Summers. _Yarg._"

Chance just let out a little groan. "You know what, I'm fine with space pirate."

"I don't know if you want to do that," James pointed out, dropping his chair back on all four legs and leaning forward so he could drop his voice quieter. "I've seen pictures of your Grampa's outfits. So much no. Jubilee would disown you."

"Yeah, I'm _not _wearing anything Corsair would wear," Chance said, wrinkling his nose.

"You gonna be okay in the fall, right?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'll be un-grounded by then. _Maybe_."

"No, that's not it," he said, shaking his head. "I mean…. You know Elin's going to Storm's school, right? "

"Wait, when did that happen?" Chance's head came up. "While I was gone?"

"I figured you knew," James said. "Elin told Krissy before this whole mess started up. And seeing as you two share a brain more often than not …"

Chance shook his head, wide-eyed. "No, she didn't tell me."

"Krissy's probably hoping she'll change her mind," James said with a shrug.

"Probably," Chance said, his shoulders slumped. "But she just got on the team!"

"Our dads worked it out already. She'll be back two or three times a month for training," James told him. "But that's not … you're _really _not taking this well."

"I'm not even gonna get to really _hang out _with any of my friends until the fall at this rate, and then my best friend's leaving? Yeah, no idea why that would be upsetting."

"When was the last time you hung out with her anyhow?" James asked, crossing his arms.

"We hang out," Chance defended.

James' eyebrows went up and he just stared back at Chance, waiting for an actual answer.

"So… I guess hanging out with her and Krissy counts?"

"When was the last time _that _happened?" James said. "Because I have to tell you - it's no fun being a third wheel. For anyone."

"Oh. Well. A while ago. I mean, I was gone for a month… maybe a few weeks before that," Chance said slowly, counting backwards from one major holiday to the last when they _had _just hung out.

"Well I thought I should warn you anyhow," James said. "Especially since I'm going to Chicago after I finish up some tests at the college."

"You… what?" Chance blinked at him openly.

"I can't speak for Elin, but I'll be gone for the semester at least, more or less. There are some things I'm supposed to help with between Stark and the Navy, and their big training academy is there."

Chance nodded slowly and just looked back down at his homework. "Makes sense," he muttered.

"It's something they came up with so I can finish a degree," James said. "Kitty already informed me that she'll have work for me too."

"Well, when you get a diploma, let me know. If I'm not grounded still, we can celebrate."

"You'll still be grounded since that'll be well over with before I go to Chicago," James told him with a smirk. "I'm just … klepping out of most of the courses for the college work already. I've been putting in the lab work. And writing papers. So many stupid papers. Tony wants me to see how far I can go just on klepping before we get into bigger degrees. Kitty thinks it's hilarious in spite of Tony being the one to suggest it and is trying to claim it was her training in play."

Chance had to smirk. "Betcha she wouldn't do that to you if you weren't trying to give her fits."

"Not up to her," James said. "It's the college courses. Kitty will give me fits no matter what I do. She's excited to stake her claim. She said Storm and Jubes can fight over Elin …"

"Your family dynamics are really something else," Chance smirked.

"Like you got room to talk, Space Pirate."

Chance shrugged. "I think it kind of comes with the X-Men territory."

"No … that's definitely genetic." He gave Chance a grin. "I'll bet I could prove it and get Uncle Blue to get off my back about doing genetics work."

"I don't think you can prove that," Chance said.

"Oh sure … the DNA marker will carry a little alien skull and crossbones." He waved him off. "Easy to spot."

Chance shook his head before he went back to his homework. "Well, I guess I'd better catch up before you go to Chicago then," he said.

"That's why I'm here instead of fishing," James said, finally cracking open his laptop with a sigh. "Let me know if you need anything. I'll just be writing. Or playing minesweeper. One or the other."

"I really appreciate it," Chance told him honestly. "Sorry you had to give up fishing."

"I didn't _have to. _I wanted to," James promised. "Your dad's all tense about the finals coming up anyhow, and I was told pretty clearly that he didn't want me pulling the same trick Elin did with her testing time table, so …"

Chance smirked at that. "Yeah, I'd appreciate it if you didn't kill my dad."

"He's worried a lot about everyone's mental well being, and seeing as I'm not worried about the tests … I'll just let him get past this crap before I start pushing."

"You've got time," Chance pointed out.

"Yeah, don't know if you noticed, but I like to get this kind of stuff done and over with."

Chance smirked at that. "You'll probably make it before me. Dad is _so _not happy with me."

"Oh. I wouldn't worry about _your _Dad come test time," James said, smirking to himself.

"Um, considering he has to agree to even _do _my test before I get around to your dad's? Yeah. I have to worry about him first."

"Yeah. And you'll have to deal with my Dad the same way. He's not exactly happy with you right now either."

Chance looked James square in the face. "No," he said, perfectly straightfaced. "I _never _would have guessed that by the way he's trying to murder me in combat."

"In all fairness, the whole of the combat class is getting the same treatment," James pointed out.

"Yes, which is why they all want to murder me too," Chance pointed out.

"They just don't like working hard," he said with a shrug. "Besides … if you think he's going to go easy on me when I get back from Chicago for missing a semester of Combat …"

"Yeah, I don't envy you that," Chance agreed. "I'm just saying. I _know _neither of them is happy with me right now. I don't need the super genius to tell me that."

"So sensitive," James said, shaking his head. "How mad was Krissy when you came back?"

Chance shook his head. "Yeah. Um. Considering she stranded me in Salem Center, I'd say 'pretty mad'."

"She got in trouble for that, you know. Only reason _you _didn't get in more trouble."

Chance smirked. "Yeah, that's the only way I'm allowed off the grounds. Elfish kidnapping."

"That's too bad, because I'm just about done tinkering up those guns with Stark …"

"You're killing me."

James couldn't help but smile at that and quietly went back to his paper writing. "Just saying … they're kind of fun on the 'demolitions' setting…"

"Shut up and play minesweeper, James."

* * *

"Papa, can I borrow one of the bamfs to go to LA?" Krissy asked.

"Are you thinking of following Elin then?" Kurt teased.

Krissy wrinkled her nose. "No, no. I just… I wanted to go see Sying. Emailing Isn't the same, and he's been really quiet since he got home."

Kurt nodded with a small smile in place. "Yes, of course. Would you like me to go with you too? We could bring your mother her favorite sundae back."

"Oh, well, if there's ice cream involved," Krissy said with a little smile. "Okay."

Kurt couldn't help but smirk at that before he put a hand on Krissy's shoulder and teleported them both to LA, arriving just outside of Jubilee and Noh's suite to knock on the door to announce their arrival.

Celeste was the one to answer the door, and she broke into a huge smile when she saw who it was. "Ooh, come on in. He's gonna love talking to you!" She grinned. "And if you stay the whole weekend, you should come with us to the mall for our birthday party."

"We're only here for a little bit," Kurt told her. "But we can return if you would like. I'm sure that the Howlett kids can bring a few extras with them."

"That would be fun!" Celeste agreed as she led the way into the suite, though anything else she was going to say just turned into a giggle when Krissy just teleported over to Sying to give him a huge hug as soon as she saw him.

"You look a lot better," Krissy told him, grinning at her friend as she hugged him.

"Yeah, well, that's what happens when you can heal, you know."

"Well, that's good though, right? You'll be right back out in Westchester before you know it," Krissy said with an encouraging smile. "We can go out for the team together! I'll wait until fall, since you're not thirteen until October…"

"You don't have to wait for me," Sying said, looking a little bit pink.

"I don't mind," Krissy promised. "Besides, Chance can't go out for the team for a while anyway while he's still _so _grounded, so we can just… all go together."

Sying shrugged. "That could be fun," he allowed, just because Krissy seemed so determined and excited about the whole thing.

Krissy grinned and gave him another hug. "So, do you know what you're doing this summer? Because if you want, you can come to the beach."

"Oh, well, we were just going to go to Australia for a few weeks and spend the summer at home after that," Sying admitted. "I'm kind of tired of traveling, but Oz was fun with Ael."

"It so was," Krissy agreed.

"I mean, you can come swimming with us anytime if you want."

"No, that's alright," Krissy said quickly. "I just wanted to make sure you weren't bored."

Sying shook his head at that. "Trust me," he said, his tone entirely serious. "I have _done _bored, and this is not that."

Krissy frowned at his tone and then leaned over to give him a hug. "You look like you could use a day at the beach," she decided.

"That actually sounds really fun," Sying said, then quickly held up both hands. "If you 'port me into the ocean, I'm going to knock you over."

Krissy just giggled and drew a halo over her own head. "What makes you think I'd do that?"

"Experience," Sying said, which just got Krissy giggling all over again.

* * *

Even though everyone in Westchester had done their finals early ahead of the rest of the schools coming in for their tests, Chance was still waist-deep in all the make-up work he was trying to do.

The rest of the kids had gone to the Lee twins' birthday party that weekend, though, and he knew the party was over when Krissy teleported in front of him with her tail twitching.

"O...kay," he said, looking up from the literary analysis he was working on for Kate. "I take it the party didn't go well?"

Krissy waved her hand. "It went _fine_. And then _Nolan_ showed up."

"Oh." Chance looked back down at his work.

"Did you know he's going out for the team?" Krissy demanded.

"What?" That had Chance's attention, and he pushed the paper in front of him aside and gestured to Krissy for her to sit down.

"He already took Storm's test and he was going _on _about taking Kitty's and then he's coming up during finals for the last two and he just _makes me so mad_." Krissy didn't take the seat that Chance had pointed to, instead just pacing back and forth. "He's just so _full of himself_."

"Gee, I hadn't noticed," Chance said mildly, though he couldn't help but smirk as he watched her pacing.

"You know he's just doing it to spend time with Elin," Krissy went on, ignoring Chance entirely as she paced back and forth. "And he just - he just makes me _so mad _talking about how _easy _it'll be and how… how…." She spun around to face Chance. "You're not a _wash out_."

Chance's eyebrows shot up, and he felt his hands clench in fists, though there really wasn't anything he could do when Nolan was across the country. "He's an idiot."

"He _is_," Krissy insisted, still pacing. "Ugh. Ellie should just… just… _stab _him."

"We can't stab people just for being idiots."

"Just a little!" Krissy insisted.

Chance smirked and finally leaned over to snag Krissy by the arm and pulled her down to sit by him. "I mean, if you stabbed him just a little, I'd totally cover for you," he couldn't help but tease, which at least got a laugh out of her.

"I just don't _want _him on the team," Krissy said, her eyes narrowed. "That would suck so hard. I'd want to hit him instead of the bad guys!"

"I thought he didn't want to be on the team," Chance muttered.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, but apparently, he's just… _horrible_."

Chance shook his head. "Yeah, well. Don't let him get to you."

"Oh, come on." She turned to face him with her tail still twitching. "You can't tell me you don't want to dunk him in the lake too."

"I'm trying really hard not to get in any more trouble, Kris."

"_It would be worth it_," Krissy insisted, leaning forward with her eyes wide and serious. "He's such a jerk, and he's only a jerk when she's not around. What if she _starts dating him again_?"

Chance shook his head. "She-"

"_She doesn't see it!_" Krissy threw her hands up in the air and teleported out of her seat so she could resume her pacing. "And I don't want my best friend dating a total two-faced… horrible… arrogant _pig_."

"No, Krissy, what do you really think."

"I'm serious!" Krissy spun to face him. "What are we gonna do when she goes to LA and she's with him _all the time and she can't see it_? And I've been _telling her _to just … _date _more!"

Chance frowned at that and shook his head. "She's smart enough to figure it out."

"She. Doesn't. See. It." Krissy said as she poked the table with every word. "I hate him!"

"Yeah, I know," Chance said.

"She's my best friend, Chance. I don't want some jerk dating her and hurting her and _mein Gott _what if she _marries him_ and-"

"Woah, Krissy, slow down," Chance said, grabbing her hand and pulling her over. "They're not even dating … so they can't even be serious, can they?" he asked, sounding alarmed.

"Not _yet_."

Chance shook his head. "I don't know what to tell you, Krissy. I can't stop her from liking whoever she likes."

"She _doesn't _like him!" Krissy insisted.

"Okay, then I'm confused," Chance said.

"Clearly."

"I just… what is the worry if she doesn't like him?"

"She might end up falling for his stupid face and _then _where will we be?"

Chance took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We'll be right there to catch her when she figures out he's a jerk," he decided. "She's smart, Kris. You know she is."

"_Ugh_." Krissy dropped into the seat next to him. "You are so not doing the proper amount of freaking that this calls for."

"I promise, I already have a bamf who agreed to take me to LA to punch his lights out if he hurts her," Chance said.

Krissy let out a sigh. "Fine. I guess that makes me feel a little better."

He grinned and leaned over to kiss her. "But hey, for the record, I think you look really cute when you're offended on Elin's behalf."

"And yours, you moron."

"Well, yeah, that's a given," he said, grinning wider again before he kissed her again.


	14. Not So Friendly Rivalry

When the kids came in to Westchester for their exams, Nolan of course was with them — and he came _again _with flowers for Elin that she didn't seem to quite know what to do with. He headed down to take his test with Scott before the regular exams could start up, while Elin ran into Krissy in the kitchen while she was dealing with the roses he'd brought her.

"Fancy finding you in a poof of smoke," Elin said as she cut the stems one by one. "Are you okay?" she asked when she saw the look on Krissy's face, the flowers still in her hand.

"Nolan's?" Krissy asked, gesturing to the flower.

"Well, yeah," she said, going back to trimming them. "Not like anyone else would bother."

"I hate your boyfriend. Just so you know," Krissy grumbled.

Elin shrugged. "He's not my boyfriend, but hey... Maybe you'll learn to like him."

"Not very likely," Krissy grumped.

Elin let out a sigh and let her shoulders drop. "So, what? I need to make sure that everyone likes a boy before I can go out with him? That'll never work."

"No, I just thought you should know I hate him. Just putting that out there in the air for consideration because I tell my best friend everything," Krissy sniffed.

"Great. That's very helpful," Elin said in a down tone. "Thanks."

"Did he tell you he's going out for the team?"

"Yeah, he did," Elin replied. "But I don't see why that would bother you, since he's not going to make the cut."

"And if he does, I'll have to put up with stupid on the team."

"He _won't_," Elin said, rolling her eyes. "I don't think he even really wants to be on the team. He just wants to see if he can do it."

"He wants to show off," Krissy muttered.

"Oh, and you _never _do that."

Krissy rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I just thought you should know he's an idiot. But for your sake, I will _try _not to stab him when we're on the same team."

Elin let out another sigh and abandoned the flowers to head out to the barn. "Whatever you say, Krissy."

While Elin headed out, clearly disenchanted with everything in the moment, Nolan and Chance were waiting for Scott to pick one of them to go in for their test.

"Chance, you're up," Scott said before he headed up toward the booth.

Chance nodded and couldn't help but grin as he ran in to the Danger Room. He'd been busting his butt for weeks to get back to this, and he was _more _than ready to get moving.

And an entire month of getting chewed on by Logan's combat course had actually been incredibly helpful to prep for the test, too. He went through the MRD section, and he actually _highly _enjoyed the alien fighting section more than he thought he would, considering that was what had gotten him in trouble in the first place. By the time it got around to fighting the junior squad, he was feeling pretty good about himself — right until Tyler roared at him and charged and very nearly knocked him out for as hard as he hit the floor. He was too stunned to do anything after that — seeing stars pretty badly — and he was out of the game a few seconds later when Leslie Ann trussed him up tight with her vines.

Once he stopped seeing colors, he shook his head to himself. He really should have seen that coming. He was going to have to do better next time.

He was feeling a bit discouraged when Scott told him to hit the showers, but he didn't show it at all when he passed Nolan, making sure to keep his chin up and even wish him good luck on the way past.

When he was out of the showers, though, he was surprised when Scott told him to go schedule his next test with Logan. "You mean I passed?" he asked, totally caught off-guard.

Scott smirked. "You did great," he said.

"But I lost."

"Yes, you did." Scott smirked a bit wider as he turned back around to head toward the booth for Nolan's test. "Go schedule your next test."

Chance stared at Scott for a long moment before he started to very slowly grin — and then he simply took off running to go find Logan.

But he was surprised when he got there; it looked like Nolan had skipped the shower and gone right to Logan, and the two of them were already talking. It wasn't long before Nolan turned and grinned Chance's way on his way out, missing the way Logan was watching him entirely.

"Something on your mind, Shanghai?" Logan asked once Nolan was out of the room.

"Yeah, I'm supposed to talk to you to schedule the next test," Chance said, getting a bit of his grin back now that he was there.

Logan let out a 'hmm' and tipped his head slightly. "We can do it after the kids from the other schools are gone. Couple days out anyhow."

Chance nodded quickly. "Alright. Yeah. Thanks!" he said before he zipped off to go find Krissy and tell her the good news.

Logan shook his head as he watched the kid run off and had turned to head toward the garage when Scott caught up to him.

"I've got Nolan's and Chance's scores for you."

"Great," Logan said distractedly. "Not that I've ever needed them for anyone else or that you've ever needed to come find me to hand 'em over. What's the story?"

Scott smirked and shook his head. "You know I'm going to give them to you anyway even if you don't need them, but Nolan is going to need more work if he makes the team. His scores are good, but I don't think he's up to the challenge."

"Relax, Slim. There's no way a kid that could barely pass self-defense and couldn't cut it in combat is gonna pass my test."

"It's not just the test I'm worried about. The kid doesn't know how to lose," Scott said.

Logan smirked to himself. "Issat so?"

"Just about had a fit when Leslie Ann strung him up by his arms and legs saying it was overpowered and unrealistic," Scott said, shaking his head. "I would have failed him, but he aced everything else, so I wanted to talk with you about it."

Logan was nodding at that. "Well then. I think I got the perfect life lesson for him. He's supposed to meet up with me at nine. Wanna watch 'im learn to lose?"

Scott smirked. "I don't have anything else on my schedule."

"Then make sure you bring coffee with you," Logan warned. "Even if he totally bombs, it's gonna take a while."

* * *

Krissy was sitting up on the roof feeling pretty down as the rest of the school either celebrated the end of the semester or fretted over finals and their big tests. She was very sure that she'd just managed to isolate her best friend… but she didn't think she could have been able to _stand _it if she hadn't said something. Elin couldn't date a jerk and not know about it. She just couldn't.

She was so lost in thinking about how it had gone down that she didn't notice Chance come out of the school wearing a huge grin until he was already climbing up to join her.

"There you are," he said, still with that huge grin. "I've been looking for you, Kris!"

She smiled lightly his way. "Sorry. I was distracted. How was your test?"

His grin only widened. "I aced it!" he declared. "And I've got Logan's test in a few days."

"Which you will also pass and then be on the team with our friend and the _idiot _she's dating," Krissy said with a long and dramatic sigh.

"Okay, what's up with you?" he asked, losing the grin as he finally got up to where she was and sat down beside her to grab her hand in his.

Krissy let out a sigh. "I told Elin that I hate Nolan."

He winced. "How'd that go?"

She glanced up at him and gave him a dry look. "How do you think it went?"

"Probably not that well, all things considered," Chance said.

"No. Kidding," Krissy said, then scrunched up her shoulders and brought her knees up so she could rest her chin on them. "I just… I couldn't stand it if she started dating him again and didn't know he was a total _loser_."

Chance let out his breath and nodded. "I get it, but Krissy…"

"I know; it was stupid. You don't have a monopoly on stupid decisions."

"_Hey_."

She smirked at him. "What can I say, Chance? It was too easy."

He shook his head at her and then leaned over and kissed her. "You know she's gotta be mad at you right?"

"Thanks, Chance, I do actually know how to read emotions." She took a deep breath. "But… I'll find her and apologize after she's had some time to herself. Right now, you should be excited about your test."

He grinned at her and nodded. "Actually, it was pretty fun."

"That's what Elin said when she took it," Krissy said with a small smile. "I hope it's a trend."

"Oh yeah. I'm sure you and Sying will totally wipe the floor with everything when it's your turn."

She leaned over and put her head on his shoulder. "Thanks, Chance."

"I'm not just saying it."

"I didn't say you were."

"Good, because you still look like you might have been thinking it," he said.

She picked her head up to look at him and then rolled her eyes. "You're an idiot, Chance."

"Yeah, I've heard that a few times," he said before he simply kissed her to keep her from teasing him anymore.

* * *

Nolan was feeling pretty good about himself, and it showed. But that didn't last very long once he stepped into the Danger Room to find K standing with her back to him. "Oh, I'm supposed to have a test in here," he said to her as casually as if she was one of the students … and for a moment, K wondered if that was what the problem was: if he'd thought it was someone else.

She turned to face him and nodded. "That's right; you do."

He looked confused for a moment — moreso when the doors closed behind him and he let out a hollow chuckle. "Alright … but … I thought that Logan was running my test."

"He is," K agreed, nodding. "But I _am _the test." She kept her gaze locked on him as she started to move fluidly, stalking in an arc.

"You have twenty minutes," Logan called out. "Try to catch her and hold her for ten seconds."

"That's all?" Nolan asked in disbelief.

"That's what you need to do to _qualify _for my test," Logan replied. "Seeing as you were crap in self-defense and failed combat."

"But I don't _need _that," Nolan said as K started to smile in a disturbingly predatory fashion. "I'm … I'm invulnerable."

"So you think you don't need to know how to _defend yourself_ or to be able to live through a combat situation to join the team," Logan said shaking his head. "Yeah. You need it."

Nolan turned, watching K; there weren't even any holograms going. "But this is a _test_, right?"

K paused, clearly insulted, and before Logan hit the microphone, Scott let out a low "oh, man."

"I don't even want to get in the middle at this point," Logan said to Scott, who nodded in agreement an instant before he had to clarify for Nolan: "You'll need both combat and self-defense to have a _prayer _here."

With a scoff, Nolan turned, intending to try to grab a hold of K and pin her down, but he wasn't expecting the little feral to launch herself at him for an attack. He sucked in a breath — and immediately lost it when K knocked the wind out of him and started working him over. She even paused, purposefully baiting him into grabbing a hold of her ankle — specifically so she could drop down and hit him in the back of the knee with an adamantium laced punch that dropped Nolan like a ton of bricks — and left him perfectly open for K to twist up into a pretzel.

It went on like that — for a long time. The angrier Nolan got that he was losing, the more K turned up the heat until he finally couldn't go on — his stamina, of course, nothing compared to any of the ferals once they got going.

And K was going to make damn sure he didn't forget it either.

"Are you ready to start sparring now?" she asked brightly, not even having broken a sweat yet. "I'm just about warmed up now."

In the booth, Logan fell into a dark chuckle and leaned back to watch the show. "Anything he's said outside of class, behind anyone's back, or against girls ... he's payin' for it now."

By the time K was done, Nolan was curled into a ball and outright begging for an end to the test. "But this isn't the test, little Mr. Invulnerable," K pointed out. "And it's a piss-poor warm up at that. Come on. Get up."

"I just wanted to see if I could get on the team!" Nolan called out, still trying to protect his face with one hand.

"You can't defend yourself," K pointed out as the lights came back up to working level. "You can't be on a team. You'd just be a liability."

"She's right," Logan said over the comm. "You'd be distractin' the others when they had to rescue you. No way are you gettin' on a team with your skill level."

"But," Scott said, cutting in before Nolan could be totally destroyed in his abilities, "if you put the time in for self-defense and combat, you _can _ask again to test in at a later date."

Logan turned to give Scott a dry look that spoke volumes about what he thought of Nolan _ever _trying again as he killed the mic. "He's not gonna try again."

"After K slapped him around for an hour? No. He's not," Scott agreed. "But we have to leave the door open."

Down below, K reached out to offer Nolan a hand up — but the moment he pulled, K didn't wait to see if it was a hard pull or a light one to get to his feet before she broke into motion again, only stopping when she had him pinned in an incredibly painful-looking position.

"She doesn't trust him," Logan said as they watched Nolan profusely apologize for pulling — and swearing up and down he wouldn't try it again.

"Something to file away, then," Scott said with a nod as the two of them got up and headed for the Danger Room doors.

"So… how long do I have to wait before I ask to test again?" Nolan asked as he rubbed a spot at his shoulder.

"Pass self-defense with better'n a 'D'," Logan replied.

"But I'm not taking self-defense this semester."

"Until you can pass that class, you have zero chance of getting by me," Logan said. "You know enough right now for basic everyday trouble, but if you want on the team, you gotta raise the bar." He and K shared a look, and as soon as Logan offered K his hand, she glided over to him and kissed his cheek. The two of them headed off just as curled into each other as they always did, leaving Nolan in shock.

He really didn't realize how rough Elin's mom could be. Especially since she always seemed so … _soft _around her family.

"You know," Scott said, breaking into Nolan's thoughts. "She wasn't going all out. Be happy that you had this little clearance when she was in a good mood."


	15. You're Not Ready

Chance had a hard time getting to sleep the night before his test, but eventually, Charlie had more or less told him that he was _going _to go to sleep or she was going to knock him out. Which hadn't actually helped with the nerves that much.

But when he got downstairs to breakfast, it was clear that something else was happening besides just his test. Logan was pocketing his cell phone, and it was obvious he and K were headed out the door.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Peter and Sara just had their baby," Annie explained, looking absolutely thrilled with the whole thing.

"Oh, wow," he said, his eyes wide.

"Gotta go check in on Petey. Make sure he doesn't drop dead on his new little girl," Logan said. "Which is possible, considering how wound up he was when he called."

"Give him our love," Annie said warmly, waving them both off. "Go on now."

Chance watched Logan and K leave for a moment before he bit his lip and tried his very best not to look too disappointed. After all, it was a _really _good reason not to have the test today. He could be patient for a baby. That was kind of a big deal.

He grabbed a bagel and some cream cheese and let out a sigh. He would have to ask Logan to reschedule when he got back.

* * *

In the meantime, the Howletts headed down to Queens to meet up with Peter and Sara, and they were absolutely not surprised to see that May and Erik were already there. May was holding the little girl and looked like she was positively over the moon playing with the tiny fingers as Erik smiled over her shoulder. The little girl herself was staring up at everything with wide, wide eyes as if she was trying to take in everything at once.

Peter grinned and rushed over to Logan and K. "You made it!"

"Of course we did," K said before she made sure to wrap Peter up in a warm hug.

"Couldn't miss it," Logan told him about two seconds before Peter couldn't help but give Logan a quick squeeze, his nerves showing through clearly.

"You should meet her," May said, handing the little girl over to Logan with a twinkle in her eye, especially when the little girl continued her marathon staring up at Logan. "Her name is Lydia May," she added, the smile widening as the twinkle seemed to intensify into something brighter and prouder.

"Of course it is," Logan said with a smirk.

"She's perfect, Pete," K said, leaning over Logan's shoulder to see the wide-eyed stare.

"Of course she is. We had great material to work with," Peter said, and he couldn't look prouder if he tried. "Besides, she looks like Sara."

"She really does," K had to agree. The little girl even had Sara's dimples when she let out a yawn and started to snuggle into Logan.

"But she seems to have your curiosity and excitement for life, Peter," Erik said, looking incredibly pleased as he watched the goings on with his arm around May's shoulders.

"She's only a few hours old," Sara laughed.

"Yes, imagine what she will be like when she is older," Erik said, still smiling.

"If there's any justice in the world," May said with a sly smile Peter's way, "she'll be just like my Peter."

"Oh, I hope so," Sara said, smiling up at Peter.

Peter grinned sheepishly between the two women and let out a little laugh as he shrugged up his shoulders. "You never know. Little tyke playing in SHIELD while Sara and I do our thing… she might start talking like Phil Coulson or something."

"She'll have the best vocabulary of her age," K smirked.

"And the best manners," Sara laughed.

"Oh, for sure," Peter agreed. "And a good sense of humor."

"Obviously."

May laughed at both of them. "It sounds like you already have her life planned ahead of her."

"Can't help it," Peter said with a huge grin and a shrug. "She's just kind of perfect."

"She's a beaut, Petey," Logan agreed before he handed her back to Peter. "You'll have to try and keep Sadie away."

"She loves helping with the little ones," K told him.

"She's a darling," Sara said.

"Just let us know when you want the help; she'll be happy to pitch in," K promised.

"Oh, we'll definitely take you up on that," Sara said, leaning back happily and resting her head on Peter's shoulder.

* * *

Logan and K headed back to the mansion in good moods — and with a few pictures to hand off to Kate — though both of them refused to send them to her ahead of time for full baby face effect. And that was how Chance knew they were back: Kate's pronounced 'awwwwwwwww' that echoed the mansion.

Chance came rushing down the stairs with a huge grin on. "Hey, you're back!"

"Were you expecting us to take the week off?" K asked. "Because I am not opposed."

Chance shook his head. "No, I just didn't know when you'd be back. What's the baby's name? I bet she's pretty."

Logan smirked. "Lydia May."

Chance nodded. "That's great," he said before he took a deep breath. "So… I know we need to reschedule because you had to see Peter and Sara, so I was wondering when you had time. I mean, it's summer now…"

"Got my Avengers rotation starting tomorrow," Logan told him. "So not until that's over."

"Oh." Chance nodded. "Alright. Then how about Tuesday?" he asked.

Logan shrugged. "Sure. That might work."

Chance grinned at that. "Great! I'll see you then!"

As soon as Chance was gone. Logan grinned. "Guess I better tell Kurt I'm taking his Avengers shift."

"Yeah, he'll appreciate that," K told him with a smile of her own before she kissed his cheek. "I like this test."

The two of them headed up the stairs to talk to Kurt, and nothing was really said about it one way or another until well after the Avengers shift was over. Mostly because Logan wasn't back on time. At all.

It was already the weekend by the time Logan got back. A mission with Cap had gone several days over what they expected, not to mention the extra day spent in London getting drunk and celebrating the fact that it was finally, _finally _Cap's turn to have a little one on the way.

Logan was clearly worn out and looked like he needed to sleep for a few days, but he had to get his coffee in and read the paper — seeing as he hadn't seen a paper since the start of the rotation. And that's where he was, with K pulled into his side while he blearily looked over the news while drinking cup after cup of coffee.

"You look beat," Kate said as she slid up to him with a smile.

"Long haul," Logan said before he smirked a little. "Managed to get Cap drunk, though."

"Well, sounds like it was successful then. I'm sure Sharon appreciated it properly," Kate teased.

"We were toasting her," Logan told her. "Partly. Anyhow."

Kate grinned. "Oh?"

"Baby party," K explained.

"Okay, you are just… dripping with it," Kate teased Logan, shaking her head at him.

"You missed the singing," Logan said offhandedly. "With Cap."

Kate's jaw dropped, and she reached over to hit him in the arm. "You're _horrible_!"

"I'll bet the two of them had a wicked harmony," K said with a grin. "Cap has a nice voice too."

"I hate you both so much right now," Kate said, though she set her head down on K's shoulder and snuggled in all the same.

"You don't," Logan argued. "But … keep trying."

Kate smirked as she leaned over and stole the coffee to pour herself her second mug.

"Did I miss anything?" Logan asked, though he was sure to hand over his phone with the party pictures — and a fantastic shot of the two of them that some unnamed person had to have taken mid-song.

Kate grinned as she looked over the pictures. "You are just horrible."

"You love it or you wouldn't stick around." Logan argued before he let out a sigh and leaned back.

Kate laughed and reached over to smack him in the arm. "It's an acquired taste," she teased. "I married in."

"There was a video … but I deleted it." He grinned. "Just for you."

"Because you hate me," she sighed, tipping her head back dramatically. "You do. Don't argue it. You are so hateful."

"Nah, just didn't want doctored video of Cap to start circulating."

"Oh come on." She picked her head up and rolled her eyes. "It's _me_. Not Peter."

"What's Peter?" Scott asked, coming in ahead of the rest of the family for coffee.

"Logan here suspects me of doing the same thing Pete does to videos."

"She's just mad because I deleted the video of Cap and I singing last night," Logan told him. "He's got a baby on the way."

"He does?" Scott said, grinning.

"Yeah, just announced it to the Avengers yesterday — which is what we were doing last night. Celebrating in London." He gestured for Kate to hand the phone over to Scott.

Kate shook her head as she handed the phone over. "Seriously. Criminal. He _deleted it_."

"Can't have Cap showing up drunk in a video," Scott pointed out. "Even if they can sing."

"Oh please," Kate said, shaking her head. "I hate when you two share a brain."

"It's common sense, Kate," Scott defended, looking insulted at the very idea.

"It's common something," she muttered over her coffee mug as the rest of the Summers clan arrived for breakfast.

"Oh good. You're back," Charlie said when she saw Logan.

"Did you miss me, Princess?" Logan asked. "Wasn't gone for that long."

She smirked. "Well, I like when you come home in a good mood," she said. "But I'm not the one who missed you," she added, elbowing Chance in the ribs, and Chance glared at his sister and shook his head at her.

"She's right. I missed you terribly," K said to Logan before she gave him a long and drawn out kiss, though she knew Charlie was going to roll her eyes at them.

"So, the mission went long?" Chance asked after a second jab in the ribs.

"Happens a lot with Cap," Logan told him, still smirking.

He nodded and took a deep breath. "So, can we do the test tomorrow?"

Logan let out a breath and looked at the calendar for a moment. "How bout we talk about it on Monday. I got a few things I need to get done this weekend."

Chance's shoulders dropped slightly, but he nodded. "Alright. Monday."

* * *

But Monday, Chance spent half the morning looking for Logan — only finding him in the garage when he'd come in to grab a bottle of water before heading back out to tinker on the bike.

Chance rushed to catch up to him. "So. Can we do the test tomorrow?" he asked.

Logan looked up at him over the top of the motorcycle. "In a big rush, are ya?"

Chance frowned. "I just figured it's the summer, so there's no classes, and we keep having to put it off, so if you have a free day, let's just knock it out, right?"

"That's a long way of sayin' 'yes'."

"Please?" Chance asked.

"Honestly, I don't know that you're ready," Logan told him before going back to the tune up he was working on.

Chance stared at him for a second. "Oh," he said. "But you scheduled it before. What changed?"

"Not a thing."

"I don't understand."

"Didn't expect that you would," Logan said, shaking his head lightly. "Which is part of it."

Chance stared at him for a longer moment before he took a deep breath. "Okay. What do I need to do?" he asked. "If I need to put in more time in training — or in the sims — or whatever—"

"I don't know that would do it. I'm just not sure you're taking it seriously."

"What?" Chance looked visibly shocked. "I've been wanting to join the team my _whole life_. Of _course _I'm taking it seriously!"

"Yeah, I know. But it's not a game or some little … I dunno. Club. Whatever." He shook his head. "I just don't think it's what you think it is." He let out a breath and tossed the old spark plugs into the trash can. "You keep acting like you wanna be a grown up. But all I see is the same little kid playing out back."

"I can't change the fact that I grew up here," Chance pointed out.

"Nope, and I don't expect you to change anything like that. It's your approach that has me worried for you. You want to be big too fast. But you don't know what that means yet."

Chance shook his head. "I've been working for this my whole life," he pointed out, his arms crossed. "I waited until I was old enough, and now you tell me that's not old enough?"

"That's not what I said. I said you don't _act _old enough. Or I was trying to. Either way." He shrugged. "I'll schedule you. But you won't like it."

"I can handle it," he insisted.

"Yeah, I don't think you can."

"Yeah?" Chance stuck his chin out. "Let me prove it."

Logan pointed at him. "That right there. How you gonna prove it, Shanghai?"

"Let me take the test," he said. "You said I can't handle it. I _can_."

"Then show me you're not just doing the same thing you did with the _Marvel_," Logan said. "_Then_ I'll schedule you."

Chance tipped his chin up a bit. "Fine," he said.

"I want you to make it, kiddo," Logan told him. "But I don't want you to burn out too fast because it's more than you thought it was."

"I _grew up _in this," Chance said. "I know what I'm getting into."

"And we were pretty damn good about making sure you were shielded from a lot of it." Logan shook his head. "How often have you seen K or I come in torn half to hell and back?"

Chance shook his head. "I know what I'm getting into," he said again.

"How many times?" Logan said, setting down his tools and looking up at him over the bike.

"Not as often as I know it happens," Chance said.

"You're still avoiding giving me a number," Logan said. "But I can count how many times I know one of you saw us. And I can do it on one hand. You don't know _half _of what you think you do."

"Fine. Then let me face it. You can't stop me from joining the team _because _you're stopping me from seeing what you guys face. That's on you," Chance argued.

"You're just proving me right," Logan told him. "But please, keep pushing me to make it as awful as I can, and I'll keep dragging my feet."

Chance glared and took a step forward. "Prove it. Prove I'm not ready, and I'll fix whatever it is. But don't throw it in my face and then not let me _do _anything about it."

"Alright. I'm saying 'no' right now. Try not to throw a hissy fit and give me _another _reason to put you off, and _if _you can show me you're ready, I'll let you know when the test is."

Chance tipped his chin up. "Fine," he said evenly before he spun on his heel and left the garage.

Logan had to chuckle to himself at the kid's reaction. He was so much like his father it was almost laughable. But … he had decided on his plan of action. He was going to wait him out and see how long it took for the kid to start asking again. If history was any indicator, it'd be two, maybe three days before his sister got involved. Which wasn't going to help his case in the least. Unless of course he wasn't outwardly acting like he had a stick jammed up places.


	16. Shadow

When Chance chose to deal with the whole situation by spending all of his free time when he wasn't training with Krissy, Logan took it as a cue to turn up the heat and flat disappear to Alaska with K. Elin and James were staying in New York for the summer — James to finish up his degree, and Elin to be available for the team, and to take care of the horses while Sadie spent her time with the Parkers helping with Lydia. Malin was more than happy to spend her time cuddled up with Annie so she could play with her best friend and keep her usual schedule. For now.

But when Logan and K came back, all smiles and purely relaxed after running wild in the woods for two weeks, it was clear that things were changing. Finally.

When Logan came down to breakfast with his coffee and his newspaper, Chance sat down next to him with a bagel and cream cheese and a muttered "Logan" in greeting.

Logan was sure to keep from smirking at him as he tipped his head. "Slimmer."

"Thought I was 'Shanghai.'"

"Shanghai Slim is too long, and 'Slim' is taken, _Slimmer_."

Chance shrugged. "Fine," he said.

Logan took his time with his coffee and paper, at least until he had been there long enough for K to come in, kiss him, and steal his coffee outright. Once he'd handed the paper over too, he got up and headed out to the garage to put the new pipes on the bike that he'd ordered, since the old ones had gotten banged up pretty well the last time he'd taken it down to Harry's.

But Chance went to the garage with him and got out the toolbox. "Need a hand?"

Logan glanced up and frowned. "Wouldn't hurt, I suppose."

"Alright. What can I do?" he said.

"Take the seat off to start with," Logan directed. "Gotta take the old pipes off, keep the bolts, pitch the rest."

"Got it," Chance said, simply getting down to work once he had a set path.

Logan watched him for a moment as he unpackaged the new exhaust and double-checked his fittings. This … was new. And not what he was expecting.

It wasn't too long before the new chrome was installed and the seat was back on it. "Wanna start it up?" Logan asked, packing up the trash they'd made. "Job's not done until we see how it sounds."

Chance smirked. "Sure," he said.

Logan tossed the key to him and kept packing up the trash. "Make sure the baffles are out of the exhaust first."

"Got it," Chance said, still smirking to himself as he nodded and started up the bike, ducking his head to hide the grin.

Logan gestured for more. "Come on, open it up. All the way."

Chance couldn't stop the grin this time as he did just that. "You want to take it out?" he asked.

"Wouldn't hurt," Logan said with a shrug.

Chance gestured to the bike. "Go ahead. I'll put the tools up."

Logan headed over and threw his leg over the seat. "Goin' with, aren't ya?"

"Sure," Chance said with a little grin. "Just let me get the jacket first," he added, grabbing his helmet on the way past.

"Not the same as when you were little," Logan told him over his shoulder before they headed out. "Center yourself with the bike. I'll take care of the rest."

"Got it," Chance said with a single nod.

But he didn't quite understand the why until they turned onto the main road off the driveway and Logan opened it up and took off for the long, curving roads that curled up the hilly part of the county.

When they got back, Logan was chuckling to himself, since Chance was grinning uncontrollably. "Pretty sure you have to be eighteen for a cycle endorsement. Might be twenty one."

Chance grinned wider. "I'll think about it when I get there. Still working on the ship, though."

"Might be smarter to get an old one and take a few years to fix it up," Logan pointed out.

Chance nodded. "Alright. I guess I'll look into it after I get the ship fixed up, but no offense? I like flying more."

"None taken," Logan said with a nod. "You take after your dad like that."

Chance shrugged as he hung up his jacket. "Can't help that, I guess."

"No reason to want to change it either."

He nodded. "I'm kind of busy in the hangar anyway. Charlie said I could work on her ship so I can give mine to Sying when he gets back for the fall."

"I heard about that," Logan said, nodding. "Classy move."

"He's the one that showed me how to fix 'em up. And Charlie's not using hers anyway."

Logan was shaking his head at that. "No, I meant the part where you give yours to Sying. Kid needs something to focus on that won't backfire on him."

"He loved that ship," Chance said quietly. "I know it hit him hard."

Logan headed back in and then turned to go down to the Danger Room to run through a few sims. Though he paused when he saw Chance still following along. "You're not going in there with me."

"Fine. I'll be in the booth."

Logan frowned and watched the boy head up the stairs to the booth, wondering what exactly his game was before he headed into the booth and started setting his codes for a higher level sim, though he was a little reluctant to turn it all the way up knowing that Chance was hanging out.

He ran through three full sims of MRD and SHIELD before he took a second to consider it and called out for an old one he liked to use when he wanted to really push — and pulled off all of the final safety protocols. He had all of about two seconds before the sim started up — and it was a full tilt assault from the word 'go'. The mix was a nasty combo of unmarked black ops soldiers and some of Logan's nastiest rivalries, but he was in a good mood and was feeling up for it, even by the time that Lady Deathstrike appeared in all of her nasty, sparking-circuited glory.

With the first curse shot his way in Japanese, he outright grinned and dove into the fight with a growl. The fight was fast — too fast to really follow right with the naked eye — but Chance was getting a proper show all the same, and by the time the sim ended, Logan was well and truly out of breath but only half beat to hell.

Chance came down from the booth and was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. "Have fun?"

"Lil bit," Logan admitted.

"Looked like it," he said. "I don't think I've seen that move you pulled when Deathstrike showed up."

"You haven't seen _half _my moves, kiddo."

Chance shrugged. "No, I haven't."

Logan kicked off from the wall and headed toward the locker room, pretty sure that Chance wasn't going to keep following him after that anyhow. But when he slipped out again — cleaned up and in fresh clothes — the kid was waiting. "What the hell are you doing?"

Chance shrugged. "Waiting."

Logan frowned deeper and watched him for a long moment before he let out a breath and rolled his eyes, intending to flat ignore him.

It wasn't until the third day of Chance following nearly every step that K finally started to join in the fun after giving Logan a long kiss. "Oh, you brought your shadow. Hello, Shadow. Do you get a kiss too?"

Chance smirked and waved at her. "Hello, K. On the cheek, please."

She grinned outright and leaned over to do just that. "How are you boys doing today?"

"You're not funny," Logan grumbled.

"No, but he is," K replied. "_I _am hilarious. And you know it."

"_We _aren't doing anything," Logan said. "I don't know what he's up to, but I'll bet the little purple elf is getting tired of this little routine too."

Chance shrugged. "She knows where I am."

Logan shook his head. "I'm goin' to the bar," he decided before he gave K another long kiss and headed for the garage, but Chance followed him out.

"You're not goin' with," Logan told him. "Forget it. No way your Dad will go along with you hanging out in a bar."

"I won't go in."

"_Or_ outside of it."

"I'll stay in the car."

"Takin' the bike," Logan said.

"I'll stay with the bike."

"No you won't." He fired up the engine and headed out before Chance had the opportunity to get close, and in a few moments, Logan was gone down the road. He took his time when he got down to the Auger Inn and went through a lot of beer and at least three pool games before he finally squared up and headed outside — to find Chance sitting on the motorcycle and reading a book on Shi'ar tech. "You gotta be kiddin' me."

Chance grinned up at him and closed the book. "Hey, you were right. Krissy loved spending the day with me."

"So why aren't you with her now?"

"Well, you're not in the bar anymore," Chance said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"This is not the kind of crowd you should be hangin' around, Summers."

"It's alright. I've got a phone, a comm, and a panic button."

"And not a damn bit of sense."

Chance shrugged. "If you say so."

"So call your accomplice for a 'port."

"She went home for the day."

"You don't have a helmet."

Chance smirked and reached down behind the bike to pick up the helmet there. "So. Where to?"

"You're as big of a pain as your dad."

"Thanks."

"Not a compliment this time."

"Mmm, that's what you think," Chance said with a smirk as he fixed his helmet on.

Logan was shaking his head as he got on the bike and started it up, though he didn't say anything else as he headed down the road, kicking rocks behind them as they turned onto the pavement. "Your dad isn't gonna appreciate you riding with me when I've been drinking."

"You really shouldn't drink and drive, then," Chance said without missing a beat. "Especially with a minor as your shadow."

"You're not … _damnit._"

Chance smirked wider. "Don't worry. If you were plastered, I wouldn't ride with you."

"Just shut up." Logan shook his head again and took his usual path back, even if it wasn't the quickest route, if nothing else to relax a little bit when he was so. Irritated.

When they got back to the Institute, Logan parked the bike and didn't bother waiting for Chance as he headed in to find K positively grinning and nearly bouncing on her toes as she watched him come in, with Elin smiling alongside her — both of them really enjoying the show.

"So, did you two have fun?" K asked, leaning forward across the counter.

Chance grinned and waved at her as he came in. "Bike ride was great. Don't worry; I didn't go _in _the bar."

"That's too bad," Elin said. "It's fun to watch the bikers get out of the way."

"Well, someone decided a minor shadow shouldn't go to a bar, and besides, I had some reading to catch up on," Chance said, shrugging broadly. "Kitty sent me a book."

Logan grabbed K's hand and pulled her along behind him. "You don't _actually _want to follow them now," Elin advised.

"No," Chance agreed. "Day's done anyway. I'll catch him at coffee."

"Maybe," she shrugged.

He grinned at her. "Well, I'll catch him whenever. If he can't handle a shadow for a few days, that's on him."

"See … that can be a challenge if he's really irritated."

"I'm patient," Chance said. "But I think K's having too much fun to really get worried."

"She'll have fun whatever happens," Elin told him with one shoulder shrugged up. "She's the one that can defuse him."

Chance let out a sigh. "Well, anyway, I'm not following him _now_."

"I wouldn't advise it," she agreed.

"Want to head to the Danger Room? I haven't sparred or trained for a couple days. Sitting outside bars," Chance said with a smirk.

She paused and thought about it. "Um … maybe. What do you want to run?"

"I'm really just looking for a good workout — the full gambit. You know, shooting and fighting and just… gotta stay sharp."

"Oh, alright then," she said, nodding. "I can run the board for you if that's what you need."

"You don't want to run it with me?" he asked. "I was kind of hoping to spar with you."

"Oh. Okay," she replied. "Sure. I just thought you wanted a sim if you were headed to the Danger Room. We could spar in the gym. Unless you had something you wanted to work on in particular."

He nodded. "Sounds good. I was just thinking about running a sim afterward — get some target practice in. It's a great cool-down."

Elin nodded and let out a breath as she headed off toward the elevator. "It's not a bad way to end the day — if it's not busy."

"Not tonight anyway; I checked the schedule," Chance said. "You know, when your dad said he was going to the bar… I figured that meant I'd have the night off, so to speak."

"He hasn't been down to the Auger in a while," she agreed, leaning on the back wall of the elevator.

"Besides, you and I haven't hung out in a while," Chance added.

"You've been busy," she replied then gave him a tight sort of a smile.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I don't like hanging out with you," he pointed out. The elevator dinged open, and he grinned at her. "Come on. I know you can wipe the floor with me. Want to help me out?"

"S-ure," she said slowly. "If you really want to be beat up, I can help with that." She headed into the team locker room to grab her gear, shaking her head to herself at him and wondering if he realized how patently ridiculous he was being or if it was just … accidental.

She stepped out of the locker room before he did and was pulling at the hems of her sleeves when he stepped out to get going. "Pick your poison," she told him.

He just grinned. "You look great," he said.

"Please," she scoffed.

"No, you do," he said. "It suits you." He got into a fighting stance. "Let's just start with a light spar to warm up? And then move on to takedowns."

She pulled her hair back into a loose ponytail and nodded before she darted forward with a kick aimed at his head.

They ran through a solid sparring session until Chance finally called it when Elin swept his feet out from under him and pinned him, and he was too tired to get out of it. When she finally let him up, though, he was grinning. "Thanks, El."

"Sure," she said as she headed toward the door. "Let me know when you're ready for the shooting sim … I'll watch for you."

"Thanks," he said, grinning as he went to grab a water bottle and his guns before he headed off to run the shooting sim until he was well and truly tired out.

"You do know that he'll do the test when you're not expecting it, right?" Elin told him as he caught his breath again.

"Elin, why do you think I asked you to spar with me? I don't know how long this'll go on, but I'm not gonna let my sparring and training fall off in the meantime."

"Honestly, I figured that everyone else was busy and I was there."

He smirked and shook his head. "No, it's because I wanted to spar with my best friend so I could stay sharp. Come on, El. I missed sparring with you."

She narrowed her eyes. "Okay," she said slowly. "_Sure_ you did."

"I know you've been real busy since you got on the team, so I'm just glad you agreed to spar with me. Kinda missed this."

"Actually, I haven't been, but I will be," Elin said.

Chance frowned her way and then let out a breath. "I'm gonna miss you when you're gone."

She laughed outright at that. "No you won't," she said, finally giving him a little smile. "It's a nice sentiment. But no."

"Gee, El, I didn't know you'd suddenly become psychic so you could tell me what I'm thinking even though I just told you the truth."

"You and Krissy … just two peas, my friend. That's all."

"Doesn't mean I don't want to spend time with you too," Chance said. "You and Sying and James and Charlie — what, I'm not allowed to spend time with anyone but my girlfriend?"

She shook her head at that. "No, that's not what I was getting at. Just … forget it."

He shook his head at her. "I'll email you while you're gone. Probably update you on what me and your dad did on any given day."

"Okay," she said, nodding his way with her eyebrows raised.

He laughed and held his hands up. "_Not _like a couple summers ago. Krissy still gives me flack about being an idiot. Maybe it'll just be a line before I pass out sleeping, but I want to stay in touch."

"I guess we'll see how it goes when it happens, won't we?"

He nodded and then gave her a hug. "Thanks, seriously. I needed this."

"You're welcome," Elin replied. "You know where to find me."


	17. The Big Test

It was another long couple of days of the same thing — with both Logan and Chance doing their best to out stubborn the other — when Chance came down early to coffee, anticipating Logan trying to ditch him because it had been long enough that it seemed like a likely outcome.

And his gut feeling seemed to be right, because when K came down at the usual time, she frowned Chance's way. "What are you doing here?"

"The usual," he said. "He not here?"

K raised her eyebrows at him. "I'll give you three guesses as to where he is."

"Well, he's not outside the mansion, because Sying Skyped me on how to get an update if someone left."

"The clock is ticking, Shadow …" She gave him a look that clearly read that he should _know. _"Haven't you been checking the bookings for the Danger Room?"

Chance's eyebrows shot up before he simply tore off down the hall toward the Danger Room, skidding to a stop to see that Logan had, in fact, scheduled him for, oh, about thirty seconds from now.

"You've got to be—" Chance let out a frustrated sound before he rushed into the Danger Room to see that Logan was up in the booth smoking, with his coffee on the counter. "What, did you wait until I was asleep?"

"Nah. Just before I went to sleep," Logan said before he locked down the doors and tossed him right into it, starting out with a nasty MRD attack that was aimed at his little brother.

Chance very nearly swore — especially considering he had nothing in his favor, not even shoes — before he simply had to dive in. He knew that he couldn't take on an entire group of MRD on his own like this, but once he managed to grab one of their guns, it was different. And having Cody on his side was helpful, even if Cody was depowered.

He grinned and tossed Cody one of the guns. "Come on, Codes. Do your part," he called out before he rushed to steal another one so that the two Summers boys could push through the MRD from there.

When that sim ended, finally, Logan's voice came over the speakers. "You have two minutes to catch your breath and take a drink." He was even kind enough to be sure the room was giving Chance a digital countdown on the wall so he'd know when to be ready to go.

Chance nodded and pushed his hair out of his face as he headed for the bench to grab a water bottle. Not enough time to get shoes from the locker room, either, and he knew it, so he was cursing Logan in his head the whole time.

When the clock's countdown hit ten, Chance got to his feet and tried to prepare himself for whatever was coming next, but he really wasn't prepared for the absolute bloodbath that appeared around him — and Logan didn't give him clue one as to what he needed to do.

But his friends were all around him and fighting black-clad soldiers that were mercilessly firing on them. So, Chance jumped in to help, going after the nearest soldier, who was firing at James, to take him to the ground and knock him out before he found himself under fire again and barely got to cover by Elin in time.

He shook his head to himself as he tried to assess the situation. They were pretty well surrounded, and it looked like most of his friends were already pretty bad off. All of them had taken hits in some way or another, but as he took stock of the group, he finally spotted Krissy, who was bleeding badly.

"Oh, crap," he muttered under his breath. There were a few soldiers between him and Krissy, but he was sure this was the test: he had to get to her and get her out before she bled out.

He took a deep breath and glanced over to where he could see Sying and made up his mind. "Sying, I need an explosion to my ten o'clock," he said just loud enough that only Elin, James, and Sying would have heard it. He waited until Sying threw a plasmoid to distract the soldiers before he rushed forward to get past them, sliding into where Krissy was bleeding as he quickly put pressure on the worst of it.

He shook his head to himself when he saw how badly she was hurting. "Aww, man. Kris," he said quietly, glancing around to see where the nearest exit was. For just a second, he thought he saw a path out by Elin, but just when he'd made up his mind, there was an explosion that threw him sideways as he tried to cover Krissy — and the next thing he knew, he could see soldiers closing in on Elin's position where she was laid out, unconscious and badly torn up from the explosion.

_You've got to be kidding me_, Chance thought, looking between Krissy and Elin. It was obvious Krissy was fading fast, and she needed to get out _now_, but no one else was close enough to help Elin.

Chance shook his head for a second before he took a deep breath and made up his mind. James wasn't going to get to Elin in time, but Sying could make it no problem. He let out his breath though his nose and then said in that same tone that the soldiers couldn't hear, "Forget the soldiers, Sying. Get Krissy out." He waited just long enough to see Sying meet his gaze from across the fight and nod before Chance got to his feet and made a rush for the soldiers headed for Elin.

He knocked the feet out from underneath the first one and yanked his gun from him to bash him — admittedly maybe a bit harder than usual — and knock him out before he turned his sights on the other three soldiers, opening fire on them before they could get to Elin. Then, he couldn't help but glance back at Krissy to make sure Sying got there. He was relieved to see that Sying had Krissy — he was just in time to see him speed off with her, blasting himself an opening in one of the walls to do it — and he grinned when he saw the exit Sying had made for them.

He turned back to rush to Elin and then to call out to James to tell him to follow him after Sying when he heard a shot immediately followed by James crying out when he got hit.

_Oh come on_. Chance looked between Elin and James and let out an unmistakable sound of frustration. With Sying gone, that left Chance the only conscious member of the team, and the soldiers were closing in on both positions.

Chance shook his head hard. He was close enough to Elin to get her out, and she was still solidly unconscious and didn't look like she'd be getting back up. He gritted his teeth and simply ran the rest of the way to where Elin was, shooting down two soldiers on his way before he got to her to put her on his shoulders — very glad he was a good shot with a gun, since he was not going to be able to do too much hand-to-hand this way.

He made a rush for the opening Sying had made and heard the soldiers firing on James' position behind him. _This sucks_, he thought to himself as he kept running.

Logan had watched the kid's vitals carefully for the test, and when the sim had finally faded, it was clear he needed a little more than two minutes to settle out. "Five minutes."

Chance let out a breath at that and immediately darted for the locker room — to get some _shoes_. He laced them up as fast as he could before he ran back to the Danger Room to sit down and grab the water bottle and get his breath back, leaning back with his head against the wall. "Did I miss the way to get all three out?" he asked when he saw the two minute mark.

Logan was making his notes and calmly sipping his coffee while Chance rested. "Nope," Logan replied easily. "Not if you were trying to do it all yourself, anyhow. You were going to lose one for sure. Maybe two. All of them if you panicked."

"Those are really crummy options."

"That's what you get sometimes," Logan replied before he took a long pull on his cigar. "Especially when you don't delegate. Not sayin' it's not an option, just that's what happens."

Chance let out a breath and simply tipped his head further back to close his eyes. This _sucked_, but he wasn't about to let Logan think he wasn't ready for it either.

The next sim to come up was a search mission: he was alone, separated from the team, and searching for a little girl. Logan had at least told him that much. There was a lot of half-melted snow on the ground, and the air was frigid … but at least he didn't need to have enhanced senses to follow the kid's trail.

He'd been going pretty hard and fast through the test, so he took off at a solid jog down the easy-to-follow trail, picking up his pace when it looked like she had fallen in a few places, so he figured she must have stopped after falling.

He found the obvious slide marks on a particularly snowy hill and half slid down himself to find the little girl, about five years old, shivering and huddled up at the bottom of a tree. Her lips were blue, and she was sniffling and obviously crying.

He crouched down by the girl with an easy smile. "You look cold," he said. The little girl looked up at him and wiped her nose with the back of her hand with a nod.

Chance slipped out of his shirt; he was tall enough that it was huge compared to her so that he could wrap it around her tightly. He picked her up and held her close to his own body heat before he took off running back down the trail the way he'd come, staying warm if he could by running. But Logan didn't throw anything else at him in that sim, so Chance knew he must have done okay.

When that sim was over, Chance was shivering, and Logan gave him an incredibly dry look as he looked down at him from the booth before pointedly hitting a button that turned on the fans. Then, some really really warm wind kicked on to get him out of his own near-hypothermic state. "You need a _lot _of work on advanced wilderness first aid."

Chance finally stopped shivering. "Yeah, I'll work on that," he said, rubbing some of the life back into his arms.

"You sure will," Logan replied with a shake of his head. "Makin' me wonder why we quit doing the survival weekends."

"No idea. Must have something to do with the Catholics," Chance said dryly. "And the others of like mind."

"Shut up and get warm," Logan shot back. "We got a lot more to get through."

It took some time, but when Chance was finally warmed up and dry, the blowers died out, and the next sim started up. It was another hostage type situation. And it was incredibly straightforward. The hostages were at a fair distance, too far apart to deal with together from where Chance was hunkered down behind a tree. A bow and arrow were nearby — but there was only one arrow to get the job done. A quick peek over his shoulder revealed that his hostages were Charlie and Elin, both of them with a gunman holding a weapon at their backs.

All he had to do was to get within range and save the girl … or girls if he had his way. Charlie was doing her best to keep from completely melting down, while Elin was very quietly holding still and staring at nothing in particular.

Chance let out his breath. "Oh sure, I get it. Saved her the first time, so I can't save her this time," he muttered under his breath as he grabbed the bow and arrow. He took a deep breath and fixed his sights on the gunman behind Charlie. Elin could heal, and if he had his way, he'd get there in time to help her and Charlie once she was up again.

He let the arrow fly, and the gunman behind Charlie went down a second before the gunfire rang out and Elin went down with two dark spots in her chest. Chance was already rushing forward, but he was only about halfway there before he realized that something was wrong. Elin wasn't getting up. She was bleeding badly, and her hands were shaking, but outside of that, she wasn't bouncing back. And the creep was watching her with his gun still raised.

"What…" He stared at Elin for a moment before he rushed toward her even faster and simply tackled the gunman before he could hit Chance or take another shot. The guy tried to hit Chance with his gun, but Chance just shoved his knee in between the guy's legs, and the guy dropped the gun quick with a whimper before Chance laid into him and knocked him out hard.

He scrambled over to where Elin was and checked for a pulse or a breath or anything — but she simply wasn't responding. At all. "Come on, El," he muttered before he had to take a step back, looking around for something — there had to be a dampener or something — but there just… wasn't any reason she shouldn't be up.

"What am I missing?" he finally had to ask, totally frustrated and upset.

Logan finally let out a breath and answered him when it was clear that Chance really had no clue. "As far as her? They were Russian," Logan said, trying to see if Chance was up on some of the problems that they faced, but when Chance's expression hadn't changed in the least, Logan continued: "Only source in the world for Carbonadium is Russia. It halts all healing in our family in particular. If you had dug it _all _out, she might have had a chance."

Chance's eyes went wide, and his shoulders slumped. "Oh."

"Gotta know your teammate's strengths and weaknesses," Logan said as the sim faded off. "All of them."

"Yeah." Chance nodded and closed his eyes and swallowed hard. "Alright. I got it."

"That wasn't the point on that one, though," Logan said in a calm, even tone. "Ready for the next one?"

"Yeah. How long have I got to grab some water?"

"Take five."

Chance nodded quickly and got to his feet to lean back against the wall and get centered and focused again. He was still pretty upset after that sim, but he still wasn't going to quit.

Logan could see that he'd taken a lot of the fire out of Chance with that last sim - not that he had enjoyed any of this stupid test so far. But it was only going to get worse. When Chance was ready to start right _at _the five minute mark, Logan began the final scenario, with the destroyed school complete with flashing blue and red lights lighting up the night.

Chance simply stared around himself for a second at the totally destroyed mansion and the obvious signs of a fight. He had to take a breath and close his eyes for a second, since this soon after the other sim, it was a lot to take in.

Logan settled in for what he was sure was going to take a while. If nothing else, because Chance really was a lot like his father — and the modus operandi on this particular sim was to go away from the damage and the authorities and _hide. _It was a difficult sim for someone hard-wired to go toward pressure, and he knew that Chance would know as soon as he'd lost because Logan had it programmed to simply stop when that happened. And he was prepared for an angry Summers response.

And sure enough, Chance headed toward the flashing lights, doing everything that Anton had told the kids to do when dealing with police — hands up and in the light to show he wasn't a threat.

But as soon as they saw him there, weapons were drawn and the shouting began — several different officers shouting at once — several different sets of commands — and none of them on the same page. One was yelling for him to freeze, another for him to get down on the ground, while another was telling him to turn around.

But when he clearly didn't know which one to follow and he simply froze in place so they could get their commands on deck, the two that had told him otherwise got more insistent — and moments later, one of them opened fire with the others following suit.

And everything stopped.

Logan let out a breath and waited for Chance's reaction, knowing there had to be one coming. There was always a reaction to this sim. But the sim didn't fade, and the lights didn't come up.

Chance was just watching the police for a long moment before he finally looked toward the booth. "O...kay."

"This is the only one I let people run again," Logan told him. "There is an answer here."

Chance wrinkled his nose. "Not with the cops," he said. "I get it. I do. I look like my dad, and I know Anton's already run it into my head that some cops are just gonna freak out on mutants. I get it."

"I can't give you a hint, kiddo. But it's got nothing to do with how you look. Everyone that runs this program gets this same response the first time. Every time."

Chance frowned and shook out his hands. "Alright. I'll run it again."

Logan nodded and hit a button, and in a blink, Chance was right back where he started, hunkered down behind a chunk of brick near one of the kids from the school that was definitely not moving.

He took a deep breath as he tried to work it out. The police were a no-go. But he didn't see a bad guy here — or whoever had attacked the mansion. He wasn't sure what the objective was. Which was really not helpful to the fact that he had _no _idea what to do to pass this part.

Finally, he decided to keep to the other side of the mansion from the police and do a little searching. Maybe there was someone who was still alive that he needed to find. But the more he looked through the ruins of the school, the clearer it was: no one was alive.

He found Logan not far from what was left of the south wall, and he almost tripped over Kurt because he was obscured by some of the brick that had been thrown by the explosion of whatever had happened. And the more he searched, the more he found: bodies of teachers and students, but that was it. Just bodies.

Chance ran a hand through his hair and shook his head. He didn't understand what he was supposed to be doing here — which made it that much more frustrating when black-clad soldiers melted out of the trees toward the school headed for Logan. He had been so focused on trying to find someone — anyone — that he might be able to _save _that he didn't see them until they saw him, and a second after the shot rang out, the sim froze again, and he let out a noise of pure frustration.

"You can take a minute to think about it before you dive in again," Logan told him.

"There's no _objective _here!" Chance shouted back up at the booth.

"There is _one _way to beat this. Just one. And you're off base."

Chance let out that same frustrated noise before he nodded and paced a small path. He nodded once to himself and let out a breath. "Right. Let me try it again," he decided.

Logan didn't answer, but again, the whole room reset, and he was right back where he started.

This time, Chance headed off toward where the soldiers had come from, sure that _this _was the solution. He wasn't going to try to take on the whole group, but if he could figure out what they were doing there ... he wasn't sure what he'd do, but _knowing _would be helpful.

This time, he could hear the soldiers on their radios: it was a "salvage" operation, and he could already see a couple of them dragging K's body off. His eyebrows shot up when he saw it before he decided to follow them and try and at least stop them from getting what they came for.

Which was a great plan up until the soldiers with K met up with their reinforcements — and there were too many of them for Chance to take on. He started to backtrack, but then he was blinded by light a second before there was another shot and the sim froze.

"Oh, come on!"

"In a scenario like this," Logan said after the sim froze, "the last place you want to be is anywhere near K or me if we're dead."

"Then, what, I'm just supposed to let them _get away with_ killing everyone and running off with you guys?" Chance shot back.

With that, the lights flipped on, and the sim disappeared. "Yeah. That's exactly what you're supposed to do. Know when to _run_." When Chance kept glaring up at him, Logan told him, "Hit the showers," before the work lights came up and he got to his feet to leave.

With that, Chance turned on his heel and did his level best not to look too disappointed before he got to the showers. That had been an unmitigated disaster, and he knew it. He knew Logan was trying to prove that he wasn't ready, but he felt like every single sim had been a trick question, and it honestly had him mad.

The worst part was that he knew Logan was going to be that much harder to wear down to take the test again. He hadn't known about the carbonadium, so that was first. He would have to look into other methods that could mess with healing — or anything that could mess with aliens… whatever would screw with his teammates. If it wasn't carbonadium, it would be some kind of sound for Sying or something.

And survival. Maybe that should be first, actually. He _knew _he had bombed that part of it. He didn't even know where to start on that, because he'd been camping a few times with the Howletts, but beyond knowing how to start a fire and that sort of thing, he obviously wasn't prepared.

And Logan clearly thought he was a hot-head. So he had to work on that. He couldn't rush into scenarios… except for the ones where hesitating meant people got shot… _ugh_.

He toweled off and headed upstairs, totally wiped out and frustrated and realizing that he hadn't even had breakfast around the same time his stomach started growling, so he detoured from the path upstairs to crash to grab some food first.

Elin was in the kitchen with a cup of green tea when Chance came through. "Rough test, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah, I don't know how you passed the first time," he said quietly as he went to the pantry to start pulling out some sandwich supplies.

"He said he wasn't going to be nice to me, so I kind of … I don't know. Prepared for that," she admitted.

"Yeah, I thought I did too," he muttered before he went to the fridge to get the rest of what he needed.

"It had to be rough," she told him. "Dad dragged Mom upstairs. He was like that after mine too."

"Yeah." Chance took a deep breath and shook his head.

"You know, you can talk to me about it now," she pointed out. "I just couldn't warn you going in."

"I don't know, El. I have to go in again, so maybe you still have a gag order," he said dully.

"You don't know that for sure," she said with a frown. "And Dad didn't say to keep quiet."

"I didn't finish," he said. "I couldn't get the last sim."

"No one does," she said with a shrug before she picked up her tea.

"Yeah, but I failed the two before that," he said.

"I doubt that," she said, shaking her head. "If you'd have failed one, he would have stopped all together. He wouldn't let you keep going."

Chance let out a breath and looked over at her. "Well, I didn't do well on those two," he said. "I don't know wilderness survival, and I don't have encyclopedic knowledge of how to take down the team."

"Not sure if you got the memo? But my dad is brutal on his tests. Even the senior team members don't like it when he's running sims. Mom does, but that's … different."

He nodded and sat down with his two sandwiches across from her. "Well, I'm going to ask your mom to help me with wilderness survival. I'll try again in a few months."

"Not Dad?" she teased. "He lived with wolves for years, you know."

"I don't want him to think I'm trying to get inside info on the test."

"Relax," she said. "I can't say for sure if you passed because he wanted out of here so fast, but I think you'd know if you failed. He's pretty clear when that happens. Unless he's still thinking about it. But Nolan knew right away what he thought."

Chance bit back the comment he wanted to make and took a bite of sandwich instead to filter it. "He must still be thinking about it," Chance said at last. "He doesn't think I'm ready, and I pretty much proved his point for him."

Elin watched him for a moment and shook her head before she refilled her teacup and reached for the honey. "Or he wants you to _think _that."

"It's fine," he said, though he couldn't hide the note of bitter disappointment in every word. "I know what I need to work on."

But she was smiling softly at that and nodding her head. "What did he say when he ended the last sim?"

"Let me in on the answer," Chance said. "I couldn't get it. And I wasn't going to." He tried to filter his words, but he couldn't — not with Elin. Not when he was so frustrated. "It sucks. I couldn't get it. Kept getting shot. And he wouldn't tell me what my objective was."

"At least he left the safety protocols on for you so you wouldn't get tagged," she pointed out. "I got a welt for a hot minute with every bullet." She shook her head. "The ones in the head hurt."

He closed one eye in a wince. "Yeah. That sucks." He took a deep breath. "I got you killed in the one before," he admitted.

She shrugged. "It's fine. It was a learning experience, I'm sure."

"Yeah. I learned I don't have encyclopedic knowledge of the best ways to kill my friends," Chance muttered.

"Oh. Well that was definitely on _you_," Elin said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "That's like a game. How fast and in what ways you'd take down everyone in the room. Come on."

He gave her a dry look for that one. "Yeah. I don't do that."

"You should learn," she told him.

"It doesn't weird you out? Thinking about your friends dying?"

"Of course it does," she replied with a frown. "Just like it freaks me out that there are people out there that would snatch up my family in a heartbeat and disappear with us to God knows where. There is a lot of horrible stuff out there, Sweet Summers."

"Yeah, I did actually catch on to that when my brother and sister got kidnapped with my two best friends by the guy who tried to kill me for having the face I have, thanks."

"James and I were awake for it, alright?" she replied. "And it's worse than you thought it was."

He let out a breath and scrubbed a hand over his face. "I'm not trying to play 'who's seen worse stuff' over here. I'm just saying I know, alright? It's not all sunshine and daisies and hanging out with friends."

"It's _not _a 'who's seen worse' game," Elin said, blushing lightly high on her cheeks. "You're starting to sound like Krissy and her competitive …" She closed her eyes and shook her head to clear her thoughts. "I'm _trying _to say that I know you're upset about the _one _creep screwing with you guys. One. And yes. He's a nightmare. I get that. _I do_. But I also get to inherit paranoia because there is an 'unknown number' of people after us to turn us into _tools._ So yes. I've learned how to take out the room. It's a useful skill."

"Fine. Then show me how to do it, because me and my measly one person who wants to kill me clearly didn't get the memo," he shot back around a bite of turkey and ham.

"We probably won't have time to get you any good at it before I leave," she replied. "But I can try."

"We'll practice when you come up for the team. If you have time," Chance said. He let out a breath and tried to look less frustrated. "I need to learn how to do this kind of thing, El. I have to get this down, or I'll never get on the team — and I just don't know what else I would _do_."

She watched him for a long moment. "You know I'll help you. But I really don't know when we can do this, because Krissy _hates _it and she's terrible at it. And I'm not saying the two are connected, but … they probably are."

"Breakfast," he said. "She's always the last one down anyway."

"It's easier in _public _places," Elin said before she got to her feet with her teacup. "With people that aren't on the team."

"Fine. Then we'll go somewhere in the mornings. Krissy won't mind the time to wake up; she's been great about supporting me trying to get on the team anyway. A little extra practice — she'll understand that no problem."

"If you say so," Elin said flatly before she headed out to the barn, unsure if it was even worth her time to come up with the practice that he'd probably only want to do once anyhow before he got bored with it. Or distracted.

He shook his head at that before he finished his late lunch and put the bread back in the pantry before he headed upstairs. He really was beat after the early wake-up and then the full test, so he was fully intending to sleep for a while, though he was only at the top of the stairs before he ran into K.

She didn't say a word to him before she wrapped him up in a tight hug. "That was harsh. All of it."

He nodded and squeezed her back. "It's fine," he said.

"Is it?" she asked, tipping her head to the side. "Because it didn't sound like it was."

He shook his head. "It was rough, but I know what I need to work on," he said. "I already talked to Elin about working with me, and when fall hits, I was wondering if you could take me for some winter survival — or, I guess, any survival. I need that."

"We can start in the _summer_, when it's not something that becomes an immediate hypothermic situation for you," she pointed out. "We still have plenty of time for that."

He smiled at her. "Thanks. Yeah, that would be great." He took a deep breath and let it out again. "Really. It's fine. I just need to dig in with this stuff and make sure I get it next time."

"And I'm telling you: it's really not," she told him. "Logan's crashed out. These tests are taking it out of him. So you know."

Chance frowned at that. "I didn't know that," he admitted. "I guess that explains why he didn't want to do it."

"You think it's easy for him to watch those sims? Even when it goes smooth? Come on. They're designed to hit you hard, and he loves all of you kids. So this crap saying it's fine … is a lie, even if you don't know it yet."

"Then I guess I'm trying to say it's going to be fine," he tried again.

"Let me know if you have trouble sleeping," she told him. "That is a side effect of his tests that no one really talks about."

"I'm headed upstairs to crash now," Chance said, jerking his thumb over his shoulder before he made sure to hug her again. He took a deep breath and added, "Tell him thanks. I won't bother him again until I get this stuff down so I can go again."

She gave him an unreadable smile and shook her head. "You're something else, sweet boy."

He smiled at that and shrugged. "Hey, I already told him I'm not giving up. That's why it's going to be fine. You'll see."


	18. A Lot of Growing Up To Do

Chance had totally zonked out right after the test and slept for a few hours just because he _needed _it, but that was not the case after he'd spent the rest of the day with Krissy watching movies and then headed to bed for real. He wasn't tired enough to fall asleep easily, and when he did, it didn't last long at all before the first images from the test started to come back to his mind, especially of a carbonadium bullet and Elin bleeding in front of him because he didn't know what to _do_.

But surprisingly, that wasn't the thing that woke him up — it was the fact that he still shared a room with Charlie. She must have picked up on everything that he was feeling in the dream, because _she _was the one who bolted upright in the middle of the night and cried out. And that was what woke him.

Chance's eyes went wide when he realized what had happened, and he rushed over to where Charlie was, muttering, "I'm sorry," under his breath as he pulled his sister into a hug.

It took her a second to calm down, since she wasn't as good at blocking out the emotions when she was asleep, but he hugged her tight until she finally muttered, "Sorry."

"No, that one's on me," he admitted. "My nightmare, not yours."

This time, she was the one to hug him tighter when she heard it, and she shook her head into his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

"Charlie…" He shook his head. "I'll be alright. The test was a lot harder than I expected."

"I know you were disappointed, but I didn't think you were—"

"It's fine, Charlie," he told her, sitting back with her with his arm still around her shoulders. "I just didn't realize Logan was going to shock me into training harder by… well. I don't know. You might try out for the team one day…"

"Yeah, that's a big 'no,'" Charlie said, shaking her head. "I'm not interested in being a hero." She tipped her head to the side and watched him for a second. "Especially not if it's like _this_."

He ruffled her hair. "That's why you're the smart one."

She rolled her eyes at him and pushed him off her bed. "Go back to sleep, you moron."

He grinned at her for a second before he climbed back into his own bed, but after that, he was honestly not going to be _able _to get back to sleep. Not when he was half worried that he'd keep Charlie up all night — and add that to the fact that the test was still running through his head _and _his worry that he wasn't going to be able to retest if Logan thought he couldn't handle it, well, there was just no way it was happening.

Finally, when it was a half decent hour of the morning, he got dressed and headed down, figuring it would be easier to move around and get his mind on something else for a while.

Elin was already drinking coffee when Chance got downstairs, though she didn't look like she was even considering going anywhere. Her hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail, and she had on an oversized flannel shirt that she always wore on days she planned to spend curled up inside. "You're up earlier than I thought you'd be," Elin told him in an appraising tone. "You looked tired enough to sleep in last time I saw you."

Chance ran a hand over his face. "Yeah. Well. I was."

"The coffee isn't too strong," she said, tipping her head toward the coffee maker. "Unless you're planning on going back to bed, which I won't hold against you."

"I might," he admitted. "Just waiting 'til everyone else is up… I sort of woke up Charlie. Tangentially."

"Is that a normal problem for you?" Elin asked, watching him carefully — though she didn't miss that he really looked tired.

"Not usually," he admitted. "But you know her defenses are down when she's asleep." He shook his head. "Scared her awake."

She tipped her head to the side slightly. "Was this from the test?"

He took a deep breath but knew she'd know if he was lying. "Yeah."

"Do you need a hug?"

He couldn't help but smirk the slightest bit. "Sure. I'd never turn down one of those."

She set her coffee mug down and crossed around the table to wrap him up in a solid hug. "You know it was just a sim, whatever it was, right?" Elin asked, though she hadn't let go of him yet.

"Yeah, I know," he said. "I really do. But tell that to my subconscious playing it on repeat."

"I may have to do that then," she agreed.

He let out a breath. "It goes away, right? Because I don't want your dad to think I can't — I mean, I can't even…" He shook his head to reorder his thoughts. "I don't know what I'll do if I can't be an X-Man."

"You're allowed to have a certain level of freak out," she promised. "He always makes sure that he preps you for what could happen. He says it's easier to get used to the idea of something awful happening if you can see it and work around it. Much worse if it's real. Or … that's what he says."

"Considering I got you killed? I'd _really _appreciate not getting used to that. Or having to face it. I'm fine if it never happens."

"Is that all it was?" Elin asked, scrunching up her nose.

He nodded. "Yeah, I didn't even know about the carbonadium…"

"I wouldn't worry about it."

He pointed to his head. "Like I said: tell that to my subconscious. Which is also convinced I'll never sleep again for fear of screwing up my sister… and that I'll never be an X-Man… it's been busy all night. So if you have a 'shut up' remedy, I'm all ears."

"I don't know what to tell you other than he tried to shake you up."

"I know he did," Chance said, waving her off. He took a deep breath and let it out through his nose. "If it keeps up, I'll ask Hank for something until I _get past it_."

"Then maybe it's not the right time to work with you on the 'clear the room' game," she said, frowning.

But Chance quickly shook his head. "No, no. I want to," he assured her quickly. "Half the problem is I'm worried about not making the team. If I can't work on _something_…"

"I know you want to, but for one thing, you're tired, and for another … well. We'd have to get someone to give us a ride to town. I just don't know that it'd work."

Chance frowned. "If I had a little more forward progress on the ship, we could take it."

She thought about it for a long moment and bit her lip. "Okay. So. What if … we look at this a little differently? We both like action movies, right?"

"Well, yeah, but I'm not really looking for a movie marathon…"

She shook her head. "Yeah, not with me for this anyhow. But what if we used some of the set-ups for big fights or even just common movie scenes as our 'setting' in the Danger Room?" Elin offered. "I'll bet James could program them up to whatever we wanted — and have the people in the scenes act however he says. Then we could go into a dozen different coffee shops or movie theatres or _anywhere _and learn how to fight out of it."

He grinned at that and nodded. "You're a genius, El."

"Unconfirmed," she argued.

"Mmm, no, pretty sure I'm right on this," he said before he leaned over and pulled her into a hug.

"So … let's just make a wish list this morning, and I'll talk to James when he gets up."

"Alright," he said, grinning wider before he held up a hand to tell her to stay put while he scooted off to go get some paper to write on.

The two of them were in the middle of the list when James finally came in — though he looked like he needed rest more than Chance did. "What are you two up to now?" he asked, dropping into the seat across from them.

"Project for you — if you don't die on us," Chance said, tipping his head toward his friend. "What were _you _up for?"

"Nothing," James replied before he got into his coffee mug. "What's the project?"

Elin bumped Chance with her elbow and pushed the paper to him. "You explain."

He took a deep breath and pulled the paper to where James could see it. "I need some help learning to read a room — how to fight my way out. So we came up with a few scenarios. And some action fights for fun."

James looked down their wish list and nodded his head. "Do you want to know what kind of fighting styles they are ahead of time or do you want me to surprise you?"

"Surprise," Chance said without even thinking about it.

James nodded to himself. "Alright. Give me a couple days and I should have a few set up."

Chance grinned. "What would I do without you?"

"Wither and die," James deadpanned.

"Obviously."

"Is that all you two are up to this morning?" James asked, frowning slightly at both of them. "I thought you were done testing. Seeing as you tested yesterday, right? I did catch that …"

Chance shook his head. "No — I mean, yes, I did test yesterday but no, I'm not done," he said.

"Huh," James said, sitting back in his chair. "Okay, then."

Elin finally stood up. "I should leave you guys to whatever you're up to."

"You're not staying?" Chance asked with a frown.

"Did you want to do something else?" Elin asked.

"Can't I have breakfast with two of my best friends?" Chance asked.

"Well … sure. I guess so." She frowned a little and then headed to the kitchen to refill her cup with coffee. "What are we having?"

"I was just gonna grab some toast, but if you want me to make some eggs or something…"

"You're going to cook?" James asked, looking as if it was a great joke.

"I can cook," Chance defended.

"Toast." James grinned. "Maybe a bagel. If you're lucky."

"I just don't usually ... I like fast breakfast," Chance said. "I'm a _Hale_. I can cook."

"We can cook too," Elin said. "He's just being a pain."

Chance rolled his eyes and got to his feet to get out the eggs and supplies for some omelets.

"What do you think?" James asked as he slid into the seat next to Elin, not being actually quiet.

She shrugged. "I dunno. I mean, Dad said we can live through anything, right? Even bad _fugu. _What's the worst that could happen here?"

"What are you two doing now?" K asked when she stepped in with Malin. "It _sounded _like you were being awful."

"Just a little bit," James defended. "And with good reason." He gestured toward Chance, who was busily working in the kitchen. "We think he's trying to kill us. Rotten way to say that he wants new friends, if you ask me."

"Yeah, I'd prefer the simple and direct 'go away' myself," Elin agreed as K gave her a dry look and then glanced over to Chance again.

"See, now you're going to actually make him want new friends that don't accuse him of trying to poison them," K said before she headed over to get her coffee and was sure to give Chance a kiss on the cheek. "They're terrible, horrible children."

"Nah," he said. "They're just wrong." He grinned her way and tipped his head toward the omelets he was making. "You want anything?"

"Too soon for me," she told him. "I need to start with coffee and sunlight."

He shrugged. "Suit yourself," he said before he scooped in a spoonful of salsa to stir in the eggs. He flipped the omelet over and put it on the second plate he had set out before he picked them both up and gave K a nod as he took the plates over to Elin and James.

"I think he _likes _you," Elin said to James.

"Oh sure. I'm a sucker for idiot geniuses," Chance said before he went back to get a plate of his own.

"I tried to tell him he wasn't my type," James said with a shrug.

"You don't have a type," Elin said, grinning his way.

"Yeah, but if I did, it's not him."

"Oh someone beat me to the punch," Annie said as she and Scott came downstairs.

"Chance was practicing," James said — though the two Howletts were waiting for him to return.

Annie simply beamed when Chance got back and ruffled his hair. "Is that where you went this morning?"

"Yeah," he said, shrugging lightly. "Sorry, I didn't — I can make some for you and Dad if you want."

"That's alright," Annie said. "Why don't you eat with your friends? I'll pull together some hashbrowns."

James waited until Chance had a mouthful of food before he addressed Scott. "So, these two want me to program up some stuff for them. Do you want to check it over first?"

Scott raised an eyebrow his way and nodded, looking over the list with his chin in his hand and the other hand holding his coffee. "What's this for?" he asked.

"It's an exercise in paranoia," James replied.

Chance hit James in the arm. "It's a way to stay sharp," he corrected him. "And know how to get out of anything."

"Oh come on," James said. "It's dad's paranoia scenario. Anyone can see that."

"It kind of is — but in a more controlled layout," Elin admitted.

"I'm just trying to learn how to think on my feet," Chance tried to explain. "And be ready."

James watched Chance for just a moment before he leaned toward Scott. "He's convinced he bombed out."

Scott raised an eyebrow Chance's way and then took in a breath. "If this is just for cramming purposes, I'm not signing off on it."

"Actually," Elin said, setting her fork down, "I think it would be good for more than that. We could target the sim to be whatever mess is on the horizon — in plain clothes. If we do it right, it might even take Dad off-balance for the first time around."

Scott smirked at that. "Good luck with that."

"Bet I can manage it," she told him, smirking herself.

Scott shook his head, though he was still smirking. "Alright. Let's see what you can come up with."

The two Howlett kids shared a look and then a nod before they went back to their breakfasts, and as soon as they were done, it was clear that they were going to hit it as a group project, though Elin snatched up Chance's empty plate from under him. "I'll cover it — since you cooked."

"Oh, okay. Thanks," Chance said, looking surprised.

Before he could cover the shock, James was sure to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "You look like you needed one."

"Oh, shut up, James," Chance grumbled, shaking his head.

"Sorry it was a kiss from the wrong sibling," James called out, chuckling to himself.

Chance shook his head again, though he didn't follow the two of them, since he wanted to be surprised on the sims, He grabbed a seat nearby, waiting for Charlie to get down so he could go back up so she could sleep without him around.

"Terrible, horrible children," K repeated after they'd left. "I tried to warn you, Chance. You didn't listen."

"I don't mind," he said with a shrug. "Not much anyway."

She gave him a fond sort of smile and settled in, though it wasn't long before Logan came in for coffee — his paper already in hand when he took his seat next to K — and didn't bother to say a word to anyone.

Scott raised an eyebrow Logan's way but didn't say anything until Chance had gone upstairs to try and crash before he leaned over to Logan. "Alright. How did it go?"

Logan gave him a measured look. "You're worse than your kid; you know that, right?"

"In your estimation, I've always known that. Really. How did it go."

Logan chuckled and shook his head. "I'm just watching him to see how he handles things — the after effects. But … he did fine. He's got a long way to go, and he knows it, which should be enough to light a fire, I think."

"That explains the sims he and your kids were running past me this morning," Scott said.

"Already thinking toward improvement," Logan said with a nod. "Good."

"You should run one when they're done," Scott said with a smirk.

"I always run the new ones," Logan pointed out before he gestured to himself. "I'm the test dummy, remember? In case someone forgets to put in the safeties."

"Let me know when you do," Scott said, the smirk widening.

"Figured you'd be the guy pushin' the buttons," Logan said, totally unconcerned as he started on his paper. "Don't let it slip to him just yet. I want to make sure he's processing everything and not getting hung up on how to fix it." He paused and looked over the top of his paper at Scott. "I don't want him burnin' out after wanting it for so long."

"And if you go too far and let him think he's lost his future—"

"I'm not talking about letting him hang for long," Logan said. "Just a day or two. See if he's sleeping alright, that kind of thing." He shook his head. "Either way, it's not a no. It's so I know how much he can take in a session."

"Is this because he's mine or because he's human," Scott said in a tone that wasn't really a question.

"Neither," Logan said, shaking his head.

"Right."

"It's because he pushes himself so damn hard," Logan replied. "I'm not worrying about _me _pushing him. I'm more concerned with him pushing too hard and not seeing the line until he's over it."

"So it is because he's mine," Scott said.

Logan let out a dry chuckle and tipped his head back. "No." He looked his way and shook his head again. "Like I have room when it comes to going too far. I thought the idea was that we made sure they were better than us."

Scott narrowed his eyes at Logan for a second. "How did it go."

"Not bad, really," Logan told him. "He handled pretty much the whole thing like he should have for his age. Pointed out a few areas that he just overlooked, and as I understand it from K, he's already got a game plan on how to address it."

"Sounds right to me."

"The thing I think both of you are missing," K said, leaning forward to try to break down the stare-off, "is once he finds out … he's going to look at the whole thing differently. I'm a little more concerned on how he handles it _then._"

"Oh yeah. I'm sure anyone with sensitive hearing should leave the room," Scott deadpanned.

"Listen here, smartass," K said, pointing a finger his way. "You know there are a few good points in there — on all sides. So try acting like you might have been on a team together for more than five minutes and listen to each other." She turned to Logan. "Both of you."

"And I think what you're all missing," Annie said softly, "is that we're talking about a fourteen-year-old. If he _doesn't _have nightmares, then _I _will be concerned. That's what makes us human."

"Everyone has nightmares when they start out," Logan told her. "And everyone that's been in it has nightmares." He looked over at Scott. "Still. I just want to watch and see if he can sleep at all, because I can tell you: there is a huge difference between occasional nightmares where you can rest and those that happen the second you close your eyes."

Annie reached over to touch Scott's arm. "He has to move rooms," she said quietly. "Charlie woke him up last night, and she'd be devastated if that affected him." She turned toward Logan. "His sister is an empath. She hears it too. They were up last night."

Logan nodded. "Did he get back to sleep or give it up all together?" He raised one hand her way. "And yeah, it makes a difference if it was to let Charlie sleep."

Annie gestured toward the door to the stairs. "I'll let you know when I go check on him. He didn't sleep last night, and Charlie knows it. He has to move rooms, or he won't."

"Then whenever you get that figured out, give him a night and we'll hit it the next day."

"We'll just put Charlie with Chloe," Scott told Annie.

"Then we'll cover this tomorrow," K decided. "And if he tries to drag his feet, I'll personally grab this one by the scruff of his chin and drag him over to the kid." She gave Scott a look. "That work for you, or do I need to grab onto something more sensitive?"

"Whatever's closest," Scott said with a small smirk.

"Well this just got more interesting," Logan muttered into his mug.

* * *

The next morning, Logan parked himself at the table with his coffee and a paper, fully intending to find out from Annie what the story was, since Scott was not going to be very forthcoming, he was sure.

She came in and set herself up with her breakfast and her sweet tea and looked perfectly content with herself before the room cleared.

"So what's the story?" Logan asked. "Did it work?"

Annie smiled up at him serenely. "Of course it did. I know my kids, Logan. He's still asleep, last I checked, though I couldn't tell you if he went to bed anywhere after midnight. I was asleep then."

He nodded to himself and got up to refill his coffee. "Need another glass?"

"Please."

He headed off to refill both of them and was sure to give her shoulder a little squeeze after he handed her the tea. "I'll take care of it then."

"You'll take care of _him_," Annie corrected.

"I'd do that anyhow. I meant I'll take care of telling him," Logan replied as he settled in with his coffee.

It was still another hour before Chance came down, bed-headed and shuffling to where the bagels were. "Morning, Mom," he said when he saw Annie, and she reached over to smooth down his hair.

Annie grinned at him as he woke up slow with his usual bagels and cream cheese fare, though she was already sliding toward the kitchen to start making something sweet.

Logan didn't say anything for a while, making sure to let Chance wake up a little before he finally broke the silence. "You feel like runnin' a sim?"

Chance looked up for a second and nodded. "Sure. Do I get to wear shoes?" he said with a smirk.

"Well … if you _have to_," Logan muttered.

"What time?"

"Whenever you feel like you're awake enough." He shook his head. "I'm in no rush."

Chance nodded and shoved the last bite of bagel in his mouth, already standing up with his plate. "Let me just grab some shoes. And water."

"They're in your locker," Logan told him, waving for him to follow him.

"So, what are we running?" Chance asked.

Logan shrugged as they rode the elevator down. "We'll see. Unless you got something in mind you want to try."

"Oh, well, I wanted to run the new sim with Elin," Chance said. "If they've got that done already, no offense, but I wanted to do it with her."

"No, it's not ready yet," Logan told him. "James was up past two coding, and Elin was talking to Sying until past then."

"I didn't mean to keep him up," Chance muttered.

"He'd have been up anyhow," Logan said. "He's been doing that a lot lately."

Chance nodded as they got to the Danger Room. "If you don't have anything picked out, can you run through some survival with me? I asked K, but if you're offering…"

"If that's what you want to do," Logan said, nodding.

Chance nodded. "Great. You can pick the setting. I know I don't have it in, well, anything that's not just camping," he said as he headed toward the locker room to change.

"Where are you going?" Logan called out.

Chance spun around to face him. "Are you reneging on the shoes promise?" he asked with a grin.

"No, but you're not gonna find them unless you look in _your locker._" He tipped his head toward the team locker room with one eyebrow raised.

It took a second before Chance started to grin. "No kidding?"

"Unless you want me to renege."

"No way!" Chance said, the grin threatening to split his face before he simply darted over a hugged Logan.

"Alright, come on. You're next to Elin."

Chance grinned even wider. "Thank you!" He beamed. "I won't let you down — you'll see."

"Great," Logan said, shaking his head. "We'll start you on your sim at training level and see what happens."

"Great!" Chance flashed him a thumbs up and then all but rushed into the locker room, though Logan still heard the delighted laugh after the door was closed.

* * *

Back in LA, Amadi was just coming in from spending the day with some friends in town. She wasn't old enough to be preoccupied with testing into the team like the older kids were, but her mom had been involved in a lot of that, so she was happy now that it was summer that she had her mom back to drive her to friends' houses.

She was back a _little _later than she was supposed to be, but not so much that she'd be in trouble. Just enough that she was trying to be quiet about coming home, because she knew the younger kids would be getting ready for bed, and she didn't want to wake anyone up.

She went through the living room — and paused when she saw that Sying was camped out there, with his pillow and comforter, clearly meaning to stay the night. He was wrapped up tightly, his knees underneath his chin as he watched _Troop Beverly Hills._

"Hey, Amadi," Sying said with a quiet smile.

"I didn't realize it was a movie night," Amadi said as she came a little closer. "Is it a good one?"

Sying smirked. "Kinda." He pulled his blankets off the couch so she could sit there if she wanted. "It's not really a movie night; I just kind of… stay here sometimes," he added, flushing lightly.

"Is there something keeping Ael up?" Amadi asked as she took a seat next to him.

Sying shook his head. "No, I'm the one having trouble sleeping," he said. "It helps to camp out here and watch a movie until I drift off."

"Oh, well, is there something I can do to help you be more comfortable?" Amadi asked.

Sying shook his head again. "I don't think so, but it's nice of you to ask."

She nodded and pulled her feet up underneath her as she settled in, still unsure why he was on the couch instead of in his room. They watched in companionable quiet for a long while until she realized that Sying wasn't nodding off at all. "How often have you been doing this late night movie thing?"

"Umm…" Sying hedged. "A while."

"So … like the last few days? Or has it been longer?" Amadi asked, not realizing how long this had been an issue.

Again, Sying hedged. "Remember when I came back from space?" he whispered. "Since then."

She stopped and turned his way, wide-eyed. "Sying..." Amadi shook her head and carefully scooted closer. "Do you need a hug?"

"Maybe," Sying said.

"Is it alright if the hug is from me, or do I need to put the word out to anyone _special_?"

Sying shook his head quickly. "No. I don't… really…"

"I meant Krissy, but it was really just a tease."

Sying gave her his best smile. "It's fine," he promised.

"Yes, but this 'fine' seems very much like it needs ice cream, not popcorn."

"You're really sweet, Amadi; you know that?"

"I have no choice in the matter, I've been reliably told," she said, tipping her chin up like her mother often did. She let out a breath and tried to play it off. "So. Chocolate or something else? I can go get it."

"I can get it," Sying said. "You just got back from playing with friends, didn't you? You don't need to be taking care of me."

"Yes, but I _want_ to take care of you. You're my friend. Let me help you — at least a little bit."

Sying smiled and reached out to squeeze her hand. "Okay. Thanks, Amadi."

Amadi smiled up at him. "My pleasure," she said before she got up and headed for the kitchen. She had barely gotten the bowls down and pulled out the ice cream when her mother came in, looking for a fresh cup of tea.

"What has you getting into sweets so late, little one?" Ororo asked with a smile before she leaned over to kiss Amadi's head.

"Nothing that I got into while we were out," she promised. "But Sying ... " Amadi paused, clearly torn between how best to help her friend. "Sying has not been sleeping since he returned from space. And he seems very lonely camped out on the couch watching movies."

"And you intend to remedy all that is bothering him with ice cream?"

"Of course not," Amadi said, rolling her eyes — but only until Ororo gave her a look. Then, she straightened up and remembered her manners a bit better. "But until someone _older _who can help him decides to step in, I will keep him company."

Ororo reached over to run her hand through Amadi's hair. "Message received, little one. Go ahead. I'll bring more popcorn in a little while."

Amadi smiled at her mother and gave her a quick hug before she headed off with the ice cream to catch up with Sying. When he saw her, he lit up in a smile and made room for her again, eating the ice cream in companionable silence with her — and honestly glad that he had company, since he hadn't been able to get to sleep.

Half an hour passed before Ororo leisurely made her way into the movie room with a big bowl of popcorn in one hand and her mug of tea in the other. "What lovely company I have tonight," she said. "What has two of my most favorite students up so late watching Jubilation's old movies?"

"Amadi wanted to keep me company," Sying said. "I hope that's okay?"

"Of course it is," Ororo replied. "It's not a school night, after all. And I happen to know this movie is particularly … outlandish. I believe Hank used to mumble 'rampant silliness' whenever he saw your mother watching it."

"It's great for lifting the mood, though," Sying said. "Mom gave me a few different movies that are just… fun. You can turn off your brain and enjoy 'em."

"Yes, most of the movies in your mother's list are like that," Ororo agreed. "Though I have to admit: I haven't seen some of these since she was around your age." She offered him the popcorn. "And I can't help but remember why it was that she used to be up so late watching movies."

Sying blushed slightly and looked down at his empty bowl. "It helps," he said quietly, not wanting to fess up to more than that just yet.

"Yes, I know it does," she agreed. "Though she used to have Logan keeping guard more often than not, and you have a tiny goddess." Ororo smiled to herself as she settled in. "What luck."

"I am pretty lucky, huh?" Sying said, bumping Amadi's shoulder with his. "Thanks for letting me steal her."

"Any time," Ororo said. "Especially since that means I get to join you as well."

Sying gestured for Ororo to sit with them, and before long, Amadi had snuggled into her mom, falling asleep on Ororo's shoulder partway through the movie — and had fallen into Ororo's lap by the time the credits were playing, perfectly asleep and contentedly curled up right where she was, in contrast to a still rather restless Sying.

"When you're ready to talk about whatever monster is hiding and threatening you, I am here," Ororo said softly.

Sying blinked in surprise and turned Ororo's way, then bit his lip as he tried to find words for it. "I … don't even know where to start," he admitted. "I don't know why I can't sleep. I'm _tired_."

"You can think of _no _reason? In all the time you were captive, or simply alone in space, you still can think of nothing?" Ororo's tone clearly read that she didn't believe it at all.

"It's just…" Sying scrunched himself up, his shoulders drawn to his ears. "It's kind of weird. The bed's too soft."

"Now you sound like both Logan and Captain Rogers."

"That's a good group to be compared to."

"Unless you're discussing things that went wrong," Ororo pointed out. "Both of them are stubborn to the point of painfulness when it comes to admitting something went south. Don't be that mulish." She held up a hand. "When you're ready. It hasn't been that long, I know. I'm sure you're still processing. They have no excuse."

Sying nodded, shifting the way he had his blankets draped around himself. "I wish I could figure it out, though. I _do_. I just don't know where to start when it was a month and it was bad _all the time_," he whispered quietly.

Ororo reached over to rest her hand on his arm. "It's alright to not know where to start. You will know. One of these days you will know — and when you do, I will be here, as will your parents. But if you don't want to talk to your parents or grandparents, I _am _here for you. No matter what."

Sying leaned over slightly to rest his head on Ororo's other shoulder. "Love you too, Aunt 'Ro."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the next installment of our 714 Universe: "Together Or Not At All"


End file.
